Mikkel Hansen still has the first artwork he bought. It hangs in a corner of his living room in Ordrup, to the north of Copenhagen: a photographic series by Danish photographer Asger Carlsen, depicting headless, naked bodies with limbs cut away, twisted and frozen as though metamorphosizing into sculpture. Hansen bought it more than a decade ago, when he was playing handball for Paris Saint-Germain. A friend who often visited his apartment in Paris would have the same reaction every time she saw it: “Oh God, you still have this up? You own so many beautiful works—how can you keep this on the wall?”

Hansen smiles at the memory. “That’s the beauty of art,” he says. “Something that I find super interesting and beautiful, she really couldn’t stand. It triggered something in her. That immediate reaction is what makes art exciting.”

At 37, Hansen is widely regarded as one of the greatest handball players of all time, helping Denmark to win both Olympic and World Championship titles—and being named World Player of the Year three times—before retiring in 2024. Off the court, however, he has been an avid art collector for years. “Art is a way of bringing out emotions,” he says. “It gives me memories, feelings, it’s something that sparks the imagination.”

Growing up, Hansen’s exposure to art was occasional and his passion really developed once he could afford to buy works. He began visiting exhibitions and attending openings in Paris, at first collecting photography and paintings before his tastes widened to include sculpture, ceramics, performance, even video art. “I don’t think I’ve come across an art form I didn’t find interesting,” he says.