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Secret Success. Widest-ranging among the Chicago collectors is Morton Neumann, 69, owner of a small mail-order cosmetics house, and none of the collectors mystifies his rivals more. Not that they fault his taste. The living room of Neumann's town house is festooned with Picassos, the dining room with Miros, and the former state dining room with a history of postwar U.S. art. The mystery is how Neumann goes about making his selections. Even among art dealers, he is known for the hard bargains he drives rather than for esthetic likes or dislikes. Despite Neumann's taciturnity, Picasso seems to have been taken with his company, and Sculptor George Segal took him on a tour of his plaster-castery. As far as Neumann is concerned, the secret of his success as a collector will remain just that. Says he elliptically: "The works collected me. I didn't collect them."
-Considered hors concours are Leigh and Mary Block, whose gilt-edged collection, valued at $10 million, focuses conservatively on impressionists and postimpressionists. It is currently touring U.S. museums.