Financier Leon Black, the chief executive of private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC, is acquiring the art book publisher Phaidon for an undisclosed amount.

London-based Phaidon publishes about 60 books per year, mostly coffee table tomes on art.

New York billionaire Black is known as a collector of works on paper. He owns works by artists from Raphael to Vincent Van Gogh; in all, his collection is said to be worth $750 million.

In May, he paid nearly $120 million, a record price for any artwork at auction, for Edvard Munch's 1895 version of "The Scream."