Julian Schnabel's Net Worth as of 2024
$25 Million

Julian Schnabel was born on 26 October 1951, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, to Esta and Jack Schnabel. He is a painter, sculptor and filmmaker, best known for his ‘plate paintings’ and for directing the films “Before Night Falls” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”.

So just how wealthy is Julian Schnabel? According to sources, Schnabel has amassed a net worth of over $25 million, as of early 2017. His assets include homes in the Basque Country, and the controversial pink building in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Palazzo Chupi. His wealth has been earned through his involvement in art and the film industry.

Julian Schnabel Net Worth $25 Million

Schnabel grew up in Brownsville, Texas, along with his two siblings. He attended the University of Houston, obtaining a BA degree in Fine Arts in 1973, and then moved to New York to attend the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Two years later, he held his first solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, then spent the late ’70s traveling around Europe, where he was especially impressed with the work of Antonio Gaudi. Upon returning to New York City, he took various jobs such as a cook and taxi driver, but went on to produce and promote his art.

In 1979, Schnabel got his first solo show at the acclaimed Mary Boone Gallery, which was a career-launching success. After several more solo shows he became a known name in Neo-expressionist collector circles, and his net worth began to rise, such that he was soon holding solo exhibitions all over the country, and then all over the world, establishing himself as one of the major names in art, both as a painter and as a sculptor, which brought him a sizable fortune.

His works can today be seen in various museums all over the globe, such as in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Reina Sofia in Spain, Tate Modern in England and the Centre Georges Pompidou in France. Speaking about his art pieces, Schnabel is best known for his ‘plate paintings’, which are comprised of broken ceramic plates and pottery pieces glued to canvases of massive dimensions and then painted.

Schnabel expanded his artistic resume in the late ’80s, by writing an autobiography entitled “CVJ: Nicknames of Maitre D’s & Other Excerpts From Life”. Then, in the early ’90s, his creativity expanded to music, and he released an album entitled “Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud”, but receiving mixed reviews.

He definitely made more of an impression by directing films, a profession he took up in the mid-’90s, when he co-wrote and directed “Basquiat”, a biographical drama portraying the life and death of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In 2000 he directed and produced the drama film “Before Night Falls”, an adaptation of Reinaldo Arenas’ autobiographical novel of the same name. Then in 2007, Schnabel directed “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, which earned him two Golden Globe Awards, one for best director and the other for best foreign-language film. The most recent film he directed was the 2010 “Miral”, a biographical political film portraying a Palestinian girl who grows up in the wake of the Arab–Israeli War. His career as a director has earned Schnabel a new level of fame, significantly contributing to his net worth too.

He is also credited for painting the cover artwork for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2002 album “By The Way”.

In his private life, Schnabel has been married twice, firstly in the ’80s, to clothing designer Jacqueline Beaurang, with whom he has three children. In 1993 he married Spanish actress Olatz López Garmendia, with whom he has two children; after a 17-year long marriage, the couple divorced. When Schnabel’s relationship with Rula Jebreal, who penned the screenplay and original source novel for “Miral”, came to an end in 2011, he began dating former model and assistant director at the Hole Gallery, May Andersen, with whom he has one child.