Why does everyone’s art collection look the same?

Quiet luxury: Art handlers hold a painting by Nicolas Party: “Portraits”. — Photo: Getty Images Quiet luxury: Art handlers hold a painting by Nicolas Party: “Portraits”. — Photo: Getty Images

At Art Basel Miami Beach last December, an art dealer described a mounting sense of deja vu every time she entered a collector’s home.

There it was again: a painting plastered in richly coloured, looping scrawl by Rashid Johnson. A mangled steel tube sculpture in a chewing-gum hue by Carol Bove. An uncanny pastel landscape by Nicolas Party.