The photo accompanying the New York Times’s article announcing that Chicago’s Ken Griffin had filed for divorce from his accomplished wife Anne Dias Griffin on the first day of her Summer vacation shows Jeff Koons sitting in the background at a gala event. How fitting!
The couple shared a passion for art, an interest that stretches back to when they had one of their first dates at a museum. As recently as this year, they were ranked by ArtNews as two of the most active collectors of art, with a focus on Post-Impressionist works. Their collection includes Jasper Johns’s “False Start,” which they bought from the media mogul David Geffen for $80 million, and pieces by Cézanne and Monet.
Ms. Dias Griffin helped elevate Mr. Griffin’s status within the art world, where many other hedge fund billionaires seem at home, according to people close to the couple. She is a director of the Museum of Modern Art, a trustee of the Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The story tells us the couple had been negotiating their uncoupling quietly for months before Griffin’s surprise move.
A Divorce That Thrusts Ken Griffin and Anne Dias Griffin Into the Spotlight (NYTimes.com)
