In some respects Zero Fretas is just like any other obsessive record collector.
He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of music.
He has a beard.
But in other ways Fretas is very different.
Largely because he’s one of the richest men in Brazil – and he cannot stop buying records.
Fretas owns the world’s biggest record collection
He is the owner of the world’s biggest record collection.
In fact it’s the world’s biggest collection, period.
No one is able to put an exact number on it, but cautious estimates place it somewhere in the region of several million.
At present, he employs a host of people to catalogue it – a task that is expected to take around 20 years to complete.
It’s breathtakingly eclectic.
It includes a copy of almost every record ever pressed in Cuba (around 100,000) and a set of 15,000 polka albums.
While many of his records are unique, around 30% are duplicates. He owns 1,793 copies of the first album he ever bought, Roberto Carlos Sings to the Children.
His mission? To own a copy of every record ever produced.
Fretas is certainly not alone.
The Sultan of Brunei, for instance, owns the world’s largest collection of cars – around 7,000 in total.
That’s an astronomical number, particularly when you take into account that we’re talking Ferrari Berlinettas and Lamborghini Diablos rather than Ford Fiestas and Nissan Micras.
At the weirder end of the scale we have Danny Fleming from Grimsby, who owns a collection of 105 pairs of bagpipes.
There is something awe inspiring about a truly vast collection and the same urge, whether or not it takes on this epic scale, is something that drives all collectors.
We can all relate to that heart-pounding moment when you come across the one thing that you’ve been looking for and equally, the satisfaction that a collection brings.
Tom
