Karl Lagerfeld is famously an art conoisseur. As well as having a library of over 60,000 fashion and art books, he’s a known fan of Wassily Kandinsky and Lyonel Feininger and staged Chanel’s SS14 show in a cavernous room turned into an art gallery. However in a new interview with Andrew O’Hagan for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the designer has admitted to making a rather fatal error when it comes to his art collecting.

In an off-the-cuff comment, he says he gave away works by pop artist Andy Warhol and neo-impressionist Jean Michel Basquiat because he thought they “would not last”.

‘‘Let me tell you something, the great art collections were made from very little money,” he says. “Nowadays, rich people wait for things to become expensive before they buy them. And why? Because they may not be flattered to have something in their house that they bought for little money, even if it is great. But you know, I had Warhols and Basquiats and I gave them away because I thought they would not last.’’

Despite not recognising the worth of Warhol’s work, Lagerfeld did star in one of his movies in the 70s, playing an aristocratic German called Lothario in a film titled L’Amour – something the designer acknowledges later on in the interview. ‘‘Oh, yes,’’ he says. ‘‘It was the most childish moviemaking ever.’’

While the Chanel creative director has been likened to the Pop Art pioneer, he dismisses these comparisons: “First of all, I’m better groomed,” he told The New Yorker. “And, also, he pushed people. I never push people. There was something more perverted in his mind than in mine.”

h/t artnews.com