Things he loves: art, sailing -- and attention

Only minutes into his talk to a group of journalists at the Museum of Fine Arts yesterday, multimillionaire collector William I. Koch -- who had already referenced his court battles, his disgust at the old regime of the MFA, and tax problems that had forced him to move to Palm Beach, Fla. -- actually stopped talking and stepped back from the podium.

''Am I speaking too much?" asked Koch, in a rare display of self-consciousness.

''No," said MFA director Malcolm Rogers, sitting nearby. ''We like it. It's very personal."

He wasn't kidding. Yesterday, the colorful and often controversial collector was the star at ''press day" for ''Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch." The exhibition, which opens today at the MFA, features more than 100 paintings, sculptures, firearms, Native-American artifacts, and other objects -- including a pair of massive racing yachts parked on the museum's front lawn. Koch, a longtime museum supporter who also has a home in Osterville, could have simply sipped his coffee and let the curators do the talking. But that's not his style.

Instead, Koch -- in a morning gathering at one of the museum's cafes and a tour of the Torf Gallery -- was in full performance mode. He told stories about gunslingers and sailors, tortured artists and sketchy art dealers. One character dominated: Koch himself.

Over the years, Koch has skippered an America's Cup winner, built a billion-dollar energy company, sued his family members, engaged in a high-profile court battle with his onetime mistress, and been arrested for allegedly beating his then-wife. (The charges were later dropped.) He's also built an art collection that has attracted the attention of countless museums, he said.

No pesky reporter needed to ask Bill Koch about his legal battles. He brought them up, while showing off the 19th-century oil painting ''Thirty-five Expressive Heads," by Louis-Leopold Boilly. The picture, crowded with men wearing grotesque expressions, greets visitors as soon as they walk into the Torf Gallery. Koch pointed to a man in the center of the frame, his hollow eyes and clasped hands showing clear misery.

''That's me," he said.

Then he pointed to a woman in the painting putting her arm around the man.

''That's one of my ex-wives offering superficial condolences," Koch said. Next, he gestured toward the many other figures filling the frame. ''And that's all my lawyers standing around me."

In the show's Western room, Koch stood in front of a beaded and fringed Sioux dress dating to 1885. He talked about trying to get one of his ex-wives to wear it. She wouldn't, he said, because ''it had BO."

So Koch put it on. ''She said, 'It fits you. I always knew you were an Indian in drag.' "

As he told these stories, Koch, a tall man with thick white hair parted to one side, always smiled and sometimes giggled. The assembled writers laughed alongside museum officials and curators, who occasionally cut in to offer a drier, historical explanation of a piece's significance. Brad Goldstein, Koch's longtime spokesman, didn't even try to slow Koch down.

''I can't," said Goldstein. ''He doesn't like to be restrained. He is going to be who he is going to be."

Koch was equally open about discussing his reason for leaving the MFA's board in 1991, after 10 years. At the time, he said, the museum was ''confused" and ''stuffy." Koch said he told the MFA's leaders that they needed a strategic plan, and they replied that they wanted to interview the museum's curators to develop one. ''I said, 'Man, that's crazy. You interview your audience,' " he related. ''The museum has to compete with the Red Sox and movies, and that's what I was trying to preach."

Meeting Rogers, who started at the MFA in 1994, got him excited again about the museum, Koch said. In 2003, he agreed to become an honorary trustee, and he has since donated to the museum's ongoing fund-raising campaign.

''I did [this show] mainly for Rogers because I felt he was bringing the museum into the 21st century," said Koch.

Still, Rogers shouldn't make plans to acquire Koch's art for the MFA, though his curators have spoken openly in recent days about how certain pieces would fit wonderfully alongside others in the permanent collection.

Koch told the assembled writers that he doesn't want to leave the collection to his children; they might fight over it. He also said he doesn't like the idea of giving it away to a museum: The collection belongs in his homes.

''What will I do with my art?" Koch said. ''I'll have to wait and see when the time comes."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.