Who

Koons is either a genius mocking the materialism and pretensions of modern society or a kitsch artist who fools people into buying multi-million-dollar pieces of crap. Either way, he gets paid.

Backstory

In 1977 Jeff Koons left Pennsylvania for New York to pursue a career as an artist, taking a job at the MoMA to make ends meet. He soon made an impression on his colleagues by dressing up like a clown in sequins and polka dots to lure people into signing up for memberships. He later turned to Wall Street to pay the bills, selling stocks and bonds by day and assembling inflatable flowers and bunnies in his Lower East Side apartment by night. (When he wasn't out and about with other art scenesters like Julian Schnabel and David Salle, that is.) When he first started attracting attention in the mid-'80s, he quit his finance gig; by the end of the decade, he'd become an art world sensation thanks to his stainless-steel bunnies, basketballs floating in glass aquariums, and porcelain homages to Michael Jackson. More attention—and a good deal of outrage—came a few years later with his "Made in Heaven" series, which depicted him and his then-wife, Hungarian-Italian porn star Cicciolina, having sex.

Koons's career took a tumble during the mid-1990s when his marriage crumbled and a nasty custody dispute ensued. With the costs associated with his large-scale sculptures spiraling out of his control, not to mention millions in legal bills, the artist nearly went bankrupt: The IRS placed a lien on his business in 1997 and he was forced to fire most of his staff. (Jeffrey Deitch, who was bankrolling Koons at the time, almost went bust, too.) Koons bowed out of the scene for a few years, returning at the end of the '90s with fresh financing (from Larry Gagosian) just in time for the art boom, which has since raised the prices of his works to record levels.

Of note

Koons has long been a polarizing figure within the art community: Times art critic Michael Kimmelman once described him as an "opportunistic publicity monger" who displayed "the sort of self-promoting hype and sensationalism that characterized the worst of the 1980s." The New Yorker's Peter Schjeldahl was no kinder: "Jeff Koons makes me sick."

But his talent for self-promotion has earned him a long list of dedicated collectors who've had no qualms about plunking down millions for his work. Eli Broad, Charles Saatchi, Aby Rosen, François Pinault, Peter Brant, Donald Rubell, David Ganek, Jerry Speyer, Adam Lindemann, and private equity kingpin Thomas Lee have all paid substantial sums for Koons' pieces. His biggest collector is Greek mogul Dakis Joannou, who keeps several dozen Koons works at his sprawling home in Athens.

Until 2007, Koons' record at auction was the $5.6 million paid for Michael Jackson and Bubbles in 1991. The record was almost broken in 2006 when his New Hoover Convertibles sold for $5.3 million to Dominique Lévy and Bob Mnuchin. But it was only in 2007 that Koons' work truly entered the stratosphere when two pieces fetched eight figures: Larry Gagosian paid $11.8 million for his Diamond (Blue) and then several days later dropped $23 million on his Hanging Heart (Magenta and Gold). The latter was put up for sale by Adam Lindemann and reportedly acquired by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen.

To satisfy demand, Koons now operates from a vast, Annabelle Selldorf-designed studio on the West Side, where more than 80 trained assistants help him pump out pieces using a "paint-by-numbers" system that ensures they all look like they were created by the same hand.

Upcoming

Koons is now at work on one his largest works ever. For the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he'll be installing a life-size replica of a locomotive engine suspended nose-down over the museum's entrance. (Three times a day, the wheels will start running and smoke will billow from the engine's smokestack.) The $20 million installation is being funded by billionaire Eli Broad, who reportedly owns more than 20 Koons works.

Personal

Koons and his college girlfriend had a daughter who was given up for adoption; Now named Shannon Rodgers, she reconnected with the famous artist father in 1995. His short-lived marriage to Cicciolina (Ilona Staller) from 1991 to '94 produced a son, Ludwig, who was at the middle of a decade-long custody battle. Although Koons won the case in the U.S., he ended up losing when it went to Italy's Supreme Court, where Staller lives. The animosity endures. In 2008, Ciccolina sued Koons for $2.4 million in child support.

These days Koons is married to Justine Wheeler, a former assistant at his studio. They have three sons together: Sean, Kurt, and Blake. The family lives in a 13-room townhouse on East 64th Street. They also have a weekend home on a farm in Red Lion, Pennsylvania.

True story

When he was 17, Koons was so obsessed with Salvador Dali that his mother tracked Dali down at his hotel in New York. She arranged to have her son travel to New York to meet his idol, and the two went to an art exhibition together.