Top 200 Collectors

Eyal Ofer is the chairman of a multi-generational family group, Ofer Global. He oversees the company’s private portfolio of international businesses in shipping, real estate, energy, technology, banking and investments. Key to that is the company’s shipping division, which he established in the 1970s alongside his father, the late Sammy Ofer. It became one of the world’s largest shipping companies before diversifying into other business interests. Ofer Global, through its subsidiary Global Holdings Group, also holds some of the world’s most iconic buildings, including 15 Central Park West and 120 Park Avenue in New York and the Sea Containers in London.

In addition to his involvement with the family company, he also sits on the board of Royal Caribbean Group, which he has been on since 1995, and the advisory board of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

Philanthropy is also a key component of Ofer’s portfolio. He founded the Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation, which primarily supports the arts, education, and healthcare sectors. Ofer is involved with a number of arts institutions. He is a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and sits the museum’s important Painting and Sculpture Committee, in charge of acquisitions for MoMA’s permanent collection.

Additionally, Ofer is a founding member of the Circle of Friends of Fondation Giacometti in Paris, and he is a key benefactor to the Tate and National Maritime Museum, both in London. In recognition to the his philanthropic contribution, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art will reveal a newly renovated Eyal Ofer Building for the Arts in 2023.

Ofer has generally avoided going into the specifics of what is in his collection, but it is known that he received a portion of his father’s esteemed art collection, which was reported to include masterpieces by the likes of Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. He continues to build on this inheritance with major acquisitions of modern and contemporary art, with rumors that those purchases include works by such artists as Egon Schiele, Jackson Pollock, Agnes Martin, Yayoi Kusama, and Brice Marden.

Editor’s Note: Eyal Ofer was listed on the 2019 edition of the Top 200 Collectors alongside his brother, Idan, but they are now listed separately.