Collectors: The Needle and the Brush

A sewing machine and a pair of pinking shears are the only clues that identify Michele Sapone's ground-floor flat on Nice's Rue de Châteauneuf as a tailor shop. Casual visitors are much more likely to mistake it for an art gallery: about 450 paintings and drawings —many by Europe's best-known contemporary artists — crowd the walls of the waiting room, the workshop, the corridors and even the fitting room. As tailor to more than 100 leading French and Italian artists, Sapone, 56, accepts payment for his clothes in works of art. Says Sapone:...