68
JANUARY 2013
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
Though the hat remained
safely ensconced in Fenn’s
collection, Lauren’s visit gave
the ailing art collector an idea.
Inspired by the adventure sto-
ries he had devoured as a child,
Fenn sat down to write a mem-
oir, jotting down scenes and
remembrances as they came
to him. As an Air Force pilot
during the Vietnam War, he
flew 328 missions and was shot
down twice. After the war he
turned to art, se ling in Santa
Fe with his wife, Peggy, and
opening Fenn Gallery, which
became themost successful art
gallery in New Mexico. Fenn’s
holdings included Remingtons
and Russells and O’Keeffes—
every big name in Western
art—and many of those works
are now in museums ranging
from the Buffalo Bill Historical
Center in Cody, Wyo., to the Art
Institute of Chicago. Buying
and selling art was how Fenn
came to know Lauren, yes, but
also Robert Redford, Jacqueline
Onassis, Sam Shepard, Jessica
Lange, Steven Spielberg and
Donna Karan.
And that’s when things got
interesting. As he wrote, Fenn
was reminded of how much
fun he’d had hunting down
fine art pieces and building his
collection over the decades. He
felt it would be a shame if all
that ended with his death. The
memoir would help preserve
his legacy, of course—but as
he saw it, there was only one
way to pass along that sense of
delight, that thrill of the hunt.
So Fenn bought an antique
bronze chest and started to fill
it with treasures. The booty
included a jar full of gold dust
panned in Alaska, gold coins,
large and small gold nuggets,
pre-Columbian gold animal fig-
ures, two ancient Chinese jade
carvings, a 17th-century Span-
ish gold and emerald ring and
a beloved bracelet of turquoise
beads, excavated from a Mesa
Verde ruin in 1903, that Fenn
had won in a game of pool. The
total value amounted to about
$3 million.
Fenn decided he would
hide the chest with a copy of
his book in the desert, maybe
even as he walked out into the
DANIEL NADELBACH (FENN), STYLING BY GILDA MEYER-NIEHOF; ADDISON DOTY (TREASURE CHEST)
In 1996 the designer paid a visit to his friend Forrest Fenn, who
lived in Santa Fe, N.M. Fenn had recently undergone chemo and
radiation for kidney cancer, and was told there was only a 20
percent chance for his survival. He sold his successful Santa Fe
art gallery and se led in to await the inevitable. While he did,
many friends stopped by to visit him and his wife at home.
¶ The place was filled with more than 5,000 pieces of museum-
quality Southwestern art and artifacts, from Si ing Bull’s pipe
and an 18th-century painted buffalo skin to early Indian po ery
and rare Plains Indian medicine bonnets. Lauren immediately
fell in love with a Crow Indian hat covered in white ermine skins
and carved antelope horns, and offered to buy it. Fenn refused,
saying it was one of his favorites. Lauren said, “Well, you can’t
take it with you.” To which Fenn replied,
“
Then I’m not going.”
