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THE first public sighting of Eli Broad , the 78-year-old billionaire philanthropist and art collector, came at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Quietly navigating the aisles of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, along with others in the early-admission V.I.P. crowd, he moved quietly and with single-minded determination, a shark in a blue blazer with a curator beside him like a remora fish along for the ride.

“Collecting is more than just buying objects,” said Mr. Broad , who, along with his wife, Edye, maintains a mammoth personal collection of 500 major artworks, runs a foundation with another 1,500 and is the driving force (some would say pile-driving) behind the contemporary public art scene in Los Angeles. Mr. Broad was a key figure in the founding of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles , in the 1970s and helped save it from ruin a year and a half ago. His new Broad Museum, designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will house a collection that that includes works by, among many, many others, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Of course, collecting is more than just buying objects. It is a disease with no known cure. And like many representatives of the 0.001 percent here, the Broads showed little sign of easing up on their longtime habit of getting and spending, or of easing up, period. “It’s still a great fair, there’s good material and surprises and great parties,” Mr. Broad said nine hours later by the pool at the Raleigh hotel.

Banquettes and low tables had been installed there to conjure a North African mood for a dinner hosted by the kingdom of Morocco for the heavy hitters of the Los Angeles art-collecting scene. Waiters circulated carrying trays of swordfish ceviche in individual spoons. Mr. Broad waved one off and talked acquisitions.  

“We bought some things” at the fair, he said. Pressed to say what, the man whose first fortune was made building tract homes, who says often that he intends for Los Angeles to “overfly” New York in cultural terms and whose baldly stated ambition is to turn Los Angeles into the global cultural capital of the 21st century mentioned an early Cindy Sherman photograph. It is probably worth noting that he already owns 12.

Three hours on, at 10:30 p.m., Mr. Broad was spotted again getting his wrist stamped at the entry to the Art.sy party. Held in a tent by the shore behind Soho Beach House, the party featured the inevitable ’80s musical mix, the usual dreadful plonk, the typical motley scrum of celebrities that included Adrien Brody and Naomi Campbell (“I come down to be with my friends,” said the model, who acquires many