Kim Heirston is a contemporary art advisor who helps the very wealthy spend their hard-earned (or not-so-hard-earned) money on very expensive artwork. She's also a fixture at fashionable art events around town.

Kim Heirston was raised in Huntington by her single mother, an employee at Grumman Aerospace. After graduating from Yale, where she flirted with the idea of becoming an actress, Heirston worked at prominent New York galleries like PaceWildenstein and Robert Miller before becoming the director of Stux Gallery in 1989. Although several collectors wanted to back her to open a gallery, she decided instead to begin an advisory business in the early 1990s—and procured her first clients Cindy Shermans and Damien Hirsts at prices that would make current collectors dizzy with jealousy.

These days, she counsels collectors on what to buy and how much to pay, and does the bidding for clients who don't have the time to attend auctions, or don't want to be seen in public buying up expensive art. They also turn to Heirston for the clout she has with the city's most prominent gallerists: At a time when competition for hot art is fierce, well-connected advisors are often the only people who pry open doors with the most exclusive of dealers. The striking, six-foot Heirston, who is omnipresent at important art world events, works with many Wall Street big shots, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. Her clients have included Tom Clancy, Kate Spade, Salman Rushdie, the Miller sisters, and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. [Image via Getty]