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The hot new rich have turned the U.S. modern art world on its head.

You just can't be a successful American hedge-fund manager these days without a few multimillion-dollar contemporary paintings on your walls. So Connecticut billionaire Stevie Cohen drops $63.5-million (U.S.) on a Willem de Kooning landscape, and Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin promptly tops him by spending $80-million on a Jasper Johns piece.

Canada is just as capable of producing the hot new rich. But to the frustration of many contemporary domestic artists and galleries, our newly rich entrepreneurs aren't hanging cutting-edge Canadian works on the walls.

When the likes of Calgary oil billionaire Murray Edwards head to Canadian auctions, it tends to be $1-million (Canadian) landscapes from Lawren Harris and the rest of the Group of Seven that attract attention. (The oil patch art community is coming to relish Mr. Edwards going toe-to-toe with brokerage executive Michael Tims, another keen and deep-pocketed patron.)

"I question why serious domestic collectors can't look beyond the Group of Seven," Vancouver gallery owner Catriona Jeffries says with a sigh. "In Canadian contemporary art, you become part of a whole new critical conversation, a new critical culture."

Gallery owners realize that buying contemporary art is far more difficult, and risky, than stepping up for established painters and sculptors.

"It's often experimental, and some experiments do go wrong. Those are pieces you don't want to own," says Douglas Maclean, owner of a gallery in Canmore, Alta. He added that new collectors often end up chasing a trend, and overpaying for works that don't stand the test of time.

Ms. Jeffries says there are only a "handful" of Canadians spending "serious money" on work by domestic artists. When rich local collectors do drop a bundle on contemporary pieces, they tend to favour big-name international artists whose work is being chased by Russian oligarchs and Silicon Valley moguls. During a recent trip to Europe, Ms. Jeffries said, "I was seeing Toronto hedge-fund guys side by side with a Belgian publishing CEO and other international collectors, vying for the same paintings."

Domestic modern art hasn't captured the attention of this jet-set crowd, though Ms. Jeffries is doing her best to attract their attention. Even when established contemporary Canadian art does hit the market, the reception is sometimes anti-climactic.

A giant abstract work from Quebec-born Jean-Paul Riopelle called La forêt ardente was expected to fetch up to $2.5-million when Sotheby's put it on the block in Toronto last year. It went for $1.7-million, at a time when most sales saw paintings blow through pre-auction estimates.

This result may disappoint artists or their estates - Mr. Riopelle passed away in 2002 - and it certainly upsets auctioneers. But the small group of wealthy Canadians who are building modern collections can't believe their good fortune.

There's a sense that great paintings, sculptures and installations are available from this country's artists at bargain prices. (There's also a sense that when Mr. Cohen paid $8-million (U.S.) for a dead 13-foot tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde from British artist Damien Hirst, it was a triumph of money over taste.)

"Great emerging artists in Canada are selling works for $5,000 (Canadian) to $60,000. That's an accessible level for many people," says one first-generation Bay Street collector. "If you actually look at that hedge-fund crowd in the U.S., they're dropping big money to buy the respect and prestige that comes from owning established contemporary artists, like Andy Warhol."

Among affluent collectors of modern local works, there's still a sense of discovery. Artists such as Alex Morrison, Geoffrey Farmer and Brian Jungen are garnering critical acclaim, and striving to attract local patrons and those mad-money American hedge-fund types by exhibiting in both Canadian and foreign galleries.

"At some point, wealthy Canadians are going to start moving into contemporary art, and they are going to do so voraciously," Ms. Jeffries predicts.

One brokerage-house executive recalls first discovering industrial-themed photos by Edward Burtynsky several years ago, and buying one for $5,000. The photographer is now well established, and the executive recently sold the photo - it showed a ship being broken up on a beach in India - for $20,000.

"For those who are selective and patient, this is a wonderful time to be entering the Canadian art world," he says.

awillis@globeandmail.com