It’s not about the money

This book tells the fascinating life story of Manuela Alexejew through her extensive collection of paintings, sculpture and antiques, among which she lives with her husband Carlos Brandl in a grand loft in Berlin. Featuring works by artists as varied as Otto Dix, Otto Piene, George Condo, Allen Jones, Yayoi Kusama and Alicja Kwade (to name but a few), it is one of Germany’s most distinguished private collections of modern and contemporary art. Manuela Alexejew’s life reads like fiction: with enviable looks she first worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am during the glamorous height of the airline industry, collecting eclectic experiences across the globe—from partying with Sophia Loren at the legendary Studio 54, to relaxed days at Oscar de la Renta’s home in Santo Domingo. Alexejew then returned to her roots: art. Having studied at Berlin’s University of Fine Arts, she now committed herself to collecting with an earnest passion, each acquisition based on her personal connection with the work, never with investment in mind. Based on a series of intimate and amusing interviews with Alexejew, author and journalist Thomas Kausch has written down her surprising story from her own perspective. Combined with newly-commissioned photos of the collection by Andrea Ferrari, It’s not about the money is a rare insight into the normally closed world of a great collector.