Cohen's $110M Art Buy Paid About $110 Million for Jasper Johns's Flag in a Private Sale
Cohen bought Jasper Johns's 1958 Flag in a private sale.
By the Rich vs Reality desk March 2010 10 sources

Could have fed
1 million
hungry kids for a whole year.
Cohen bought Jasper Johns's 1958 Flag in a private sale. The parties kept the terms confidential, but art experts familiar with the transaction told the New York Times the price was about $110 million.
Reported by Forbes, November 2022 and New York Times article republished by Danziger, March 2010.
$110 million could feed about 1 million hungry kids three meals a day for a whole year.
$110 million could have changed these lives
Instead, it went on this.
1 million
hungry kids fed three meals a day for a whole year
No Kid Hungry: $1 can help provide 10 meals for kids. Three meals a day for 365 days is 1,095 meals, about $110 per child per year. Source
6,165
years of rent for a homeless veteran
At the U.S. median rent of $1,487 a month (Census, 2024), about $17,844 a year. Source
20,000
lives saved from malaria, most of them children under five
GiveWell estimates its top charities save a life for $3,000 to $5,500. We use the higher figure: $5,500, the cost through Against Malaria Foundation bed nets. Source
Or: 2.8 million people given clean drinking water; 3,082 families escaping domestic violence given a safe home for two years. Every rate and source.
Steve Cohen
About $110 million
For everyone else, that's
Could have fed 1 million hungry kids for a whole year.
Drag the seam between the two worlds.
Measured against a typical American household: $87,460 a year, $192,900 net worth.
The receipts
- Forbes, November 2022
- New York Times article republished by Danziger, March 2010
- Net worth: No published estimate
- U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 (Sept 2026)
- Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022
- No Kid Hungry, What your dollars can do
- GiveWell, How much does it cost to save a life?
- charity: water, How much clean water will my donation provide
- U.S. DOJ Office on Violence Against Women, Transitional housing
- U.S. Census Bureau median gross rent, via USAFacts
See something wrong? Send a source to hello@richvsreality.com and we will correct it.
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