Born: 1974 Kfar Saba, Israel
Biography
Collector, patron and philanthropist, Batia Ofer was born in Kfar Saba, Israel in 1974. She is descended from Holocaust survivors on her father’s side (they were originally from Ukraine), and of Libyan Jewish heritage on her mother’s side; her maternal grandmother was displaced from her home country. When she was 12, Ofer’s family relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa when her father took on a new position as a computer engineer. After completing senior school, she returned to Israel for two years and then moved to Toronto, Canada, where she pursued a BA degree in business administration at York University. While living in Canada, she married and had a daughter. After separating from her husband, Ofer moved back to Israel. She soon became the assistant to the CEO at SAP (a German multinational software company), during which she met Shay Agassi, a senior executive. She later joined his electric car company, Better Place, where she took on the role of international relations manager. Via this position she met the investor and billionaire Idan Ofer, whom she married in 2009. The couple had a son, Sammy, in 2011. The Ofers later immigrated to the UK where they currently live. In pursuit of her passion for the arts, Ofer finished a one-year programme at Christie’s and also received private art history tutoring.
Ofer’s collection focuses on post-war and contemporary art, with a special interest in German artists. Her aim is not mere financial contribution but in fostering global networks to drive impactful change via art. She gravitates towards work that addresses contemporary issues and sparks debates on important societal topics. ‘“I try to provoke conversations between artworks,” she said of her collecting strategy when interviewed by Christie's. “I like to be playful but also hint at a message that is important to me” — indicating, by way of example, a series of crimson works on paper of a traditional nuclear family hanging opposite a picture of non-binary figures,’ (Ofer quoted in Christie’s, 2023). Ofer also admires feminist artists, such as Hannah Wilke and Yayoi Kusama, and focuses on themes such as social justice in the USA and climate change. The Batia and Idan Ofer collection includes the works of Louise Bourgeois, Richard Prince, David Hammons, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Thomas Struth, Mandy El-Sayegh, Philip Guston, Rudolf Stingel, Günther Förg, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Rauschenberg, Hannah Wilke and Albert Oehlen, among others. The collection also includes earlier works by 20th century masters, such as Fernand Léger, Yves Klein, and Juan Miró, with provenance from the collection of Sammy Ofer, her father-in-law and a prominent Israeli shipping tycoon. After his death in 2011, his vast estate, including valuable Impressionist and modern artworks, was divided between his sons, Idan (Ofer’s husband) and Eyal, through a simple process involving the random selection of envelopes. Ofer’s grandfather was deeply passionate about Henri Matisse’ work, even naming his son, Matisse.
Ofer is a prominent figure in London’s art and philanthropy scene, as well as having a presence internationally. The Ofers founded the HKS Sammy Ofer Graduate Fellowship Fund, which offers scholarships to Israeli and Palestinian students to attend the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Ofer herself also founded Art of Wishes, an endeavour which engages the global art community to raise money for the charity, Make-A-Wish. Since 2017, its annual auctions have raised over £8.5 million, with the 2021 event featuring the organisation’s first collectible NFT. Since its inception, the Art of Wishes gala has included artwork donations from Jadé Fadojutimi, Jenny Holzer, Michael Armitage, Grace Weaver, Cristina Banban, Tracey Emin, Anish Kapoor, Julian Opie, Alfredo Jaar, Jenny Holzer, Erwin Wurm, and Michael Armitage, among others, and the Gagosian Gallery secured donations by Edmund de Waal, Albert Oehlen and Stanley Whitney. Among her high-profile collaborators have been gallerist, Larry Gagosian and artist, Damian Hirst. According to ARTnews, the Offers were named among the top 200 global art collectors in 2022. The Idan and Batia Ofer Family Foundation, which she manages, supports different areas of health, education and culture in the USA, UK, and Israel. In 2023, the couple also financially helped the National Portrait Gallery in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to jointly acquire Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Mai (Omai) (ca. 1776), for £50m. In December 2023, Ofer was appointed as the chair of the Royal Academy Trust. She also serves as a trustee for Sotheby’s International Council and has been involved with the V&A. She has served as chair of the Education Committee at the Serpentine Gallery and provided consultancy services for Frieze Art Fair, both in London. Batia Ofer lives and works in London, England.
Related organisations
- Art of Wishes (founder )
- Christie's (student and collaborator )
- Education Committee at the Serpentine Gallery (chair )
- Frieze Art Fair (consultancy )
- Sotheby’s International Council (trustee )
- The Idan and Batia Ofer Family Foundation (founder )
- The Royal Academy Trust (chair )
- V&A (collaborator )
Related web links
- Art of Wishes
- ARTnews
- Arts Professional
- Christie’s
- David Levene, ‘The billionaire who channelled her grief into fundraising’, The Times, 17 October 2023
- Foundation Guide
- Interview with the Wick
- Make-a-Wish UK
- Nick Foulkes, ‘Art collector Batia Ofer talks taste’, The Financial Times, 2 August 2024
- Sotheby’s
Selected exhibitions
- Art of Wishes (A charitable auction supporting Make-A-Wish UK), Christie's, London (2023)
- The Art of Wishes: Benefit Auction, Serpentine Gallery, London (2017)
