William Augustine McCarty-Cooper

William (Billy) Augustine McCarty-Cooper was an American interior designer and decorator who began his career working for the British decorator David Nightingale Hicks. In 1965 he opened his own design firm, William McCarty Associates, in London. His clients included many well-known figures, such as Vidal Sassoon, for whom he designed hairstyling salons. In the late 1970s he was commissioned to create French eighteenth century interiors for Didier Aaron Gallery.

McCarty-Cooper was romantically involved with the prominent collector and scholar of Cubism Douglas Cooper. The latter adopted McCarty in 1972, and accordingly when Cooper died in 1984, McCarty-Cooper inherited Cooper’s collection. He subsequently hired the art historians Dorothy Kosinski and Angelica Rudenstine as curators, and began donating, selling, and exhibiting the collection in Europe and the United States.

McCarty-Cooper also collected Art Deco furniture, silver, rare books, and African art. After his death, his collections were dispersed among his heirs, who sold the holdings at Christie’s New York in spring 1992.