“_La curiosité_ is a taste for what one possesses and what others do not possess, an attachment to whatever is the vogue or the fashion; it is not a passion felt generally for rare and fashionable things, but only for some special thing that is rare and above all in fashion.” To this last category, with a few slight modifications, belongs the type of collector who might be called ultra-modern to distinguish him from his modern confrères of yesterday, a type that can lay no claim whatever to the definition “_La collection c’est l’homme_,” because he never troubles himself to hunt for works of art or curios, never experiences the joys of discovery, experiences nothing perhaps, but being cheated by dealers, friends and experts. The ultra-modern collector is, of course, amply supplied with money, and relies chiefly on his cheque-book. He is always far from the spot where he might learn wisdom, yet not so far as to be beyond the pale of the deceit and trickery of the market of _la curiosité_. This latest variation carries one direct to the modern American type of collector. Not because the type does not exist in other countries, but because America has furnished the champion specimens who through the magnitude of their speculations in art- and curio-hunting have stamped the type. Yet even in America, where art lovers like the late Quincy Shaw, Stanford White, H. Walters, etc., have been known, the ultra-modern type represents a very recent and astonishing novelty. One conversation on art with this modern collector is generally sufficient to reveal all absence of real passion. These greedy buyers of works of art and curios have often hardly the time to give even a glance at their glamorous purchases. They have certainly not the enjoyment that other collectors have. When they show their collections, a common way of soliciting admiration is to recount the unreasonable and extravagant prices paid. What are they after? What is their main object in ransacking old Europe for artistic masterpieces to be carried off by the sheer force of money? Lovesque says one is a connoisseur by study, an art lover by taste, and a _curieux_ by vanity, to which Imbert wisely adds: “or speculation.” Making every possible exception, vanity and speculation still appear to rule alternately the ultra-modern collector.