The Collectors: Sera & Christopher Wilcox

For some people, becoming a collector is preordained. A grandson to Egyptologist Robert Thomas Rundle Clark, Christopher Wilcox always had a passion for nature and artifacts, an enthusiasm that inspired him to purchase a suite of engravings by Basilius Besler, a German botanist who created elephant folio–size copper plates of all the plants at Willibaldsburg Castle in Bavaria. That and subsequent acquisitions of botanical drawings, pressings, and prints became the heart of his personal trove as well as Natural Curiosities, the art house specializing in flora and fauna that he runs with his wife, Sera, and three of their children.

Midnight find: “Living in Los Angeles and following auctions in London, I often make bids in the middle of the night,” says Christopher. “That’s when I won four shoeboxes of works by Cyril Hubbard, an unknown artist from Birmingham, England. When they arrived, there were over 8,400 original watercolors—all with a playful sophistication and a great level of detail.”

Preserved memories: “We’re always on a treasure hunt, and the things we bring back that we hang at home become a reflection of our family’s life together,” says Sera. “It’s a tangible piece of these adventures we’ve had. We believe when it comes to collecting, we find it—but also, that it finds us.”

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Late Fall Issue in the section “The Collectors.” Subscribe to the magazine.