I vividly remember my first encounter with Natasha Sidharta. I was attending the opening of Ho Tzu Nyen’s presentation at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, and friends had told me to look out for an art collector named Natasha. I had somehow imagined a flamboyant, imposing personality, but she was quite the opposite. The petite Indonesian collector, then 36, appeared unassuming in a simple black blouse, leggings, and a Goyard tote—perfectly suited for biennial-trotting. Gold ballet flats added a touch of understated elegance, and her radiant smile shone beneath the Romanesque arches of Sant’Apollonia.

14 years later, when we met at the PS.Cafe in Singapore for this story, Natasha’s journey in the art world had evolved significantly. When I asked if she still considered herself a collector, she laughed and responded with mock horror, “No way! I’d hate to be called that. I’m too lazy to hunt just to complete my collection.”

Her response was revealing, reflecting a journey that had begun serendipitously more than two decades earlier. In 2000, Natasha—a curious young graduate who had just returned home after studying in Boston—stumbled upon a hazy figurative painting of a Balinese woman by Filippo Sciascia, an Italian artist based in Bali, at the Komaneka Gallery in Ubud. So struck by the work, she returned a second time to see the show, and to meet its curator.