Chinese collector sets his sights on Western art
Print Edition
HE first stunned the auction world by snapping up hugely expensive Chinese antiquities, but now taxi driver turned tycoon Liu Yiqian is targeting Western masterpieces, saying it is his “social responsibility” to show them to China’s younger generation.
Liu has become China’s highest profile art collector, hitting headlines with record-breaking buys and an irreverent approach.
His acquisitions have mainly been of Chinese heritage, most famously a tiny Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) “Chicken Cup” for which he paid US$36 million in 2014 at Sotheby’s before he was pictured drinking tea from it.
But in a departure from his Chinese collecting spree, last year Liu splashed out on Modigliani’s “Nu Couche” or “Reclining Nude” for more than US$170 million at Christie’s, currently the second highest price paid at auction for a work of art.
Liu says he hopes the museum he founded in Shanghai, the Long Museum, where much of his collection is on display across two branches, will increasingly become a showcase for Western art as well as Chinese classics.
The Modigliani is due to go on show at the museum next year.
“The world is globalized ... our collection is mainly Chinese traditional works of art, (but) we are going to expand into Western and Asian works. I hope in my lifetime I can collect more from both China and the West,” he told reporters.
Liu said he felt a “social responsibility” to enable Chinese youngsters to experience Western masters.
“Other than Chinese traditional and contemporary works of art, younger generations in China have developed deeper recognition of Western works,” he said, after cutting the ribbon on a preview ahead of Christie’s spring sales in May.
“I hope top Western works of art can be exhibited in Shanghai or in our country. I think it’s something someone has to do ... it’s cultural exchange.”
With a personal wealth of US$1.38 billion according to Forbes magazine, Liu is among the ranks of the new Chinese super-rich.
Having made his fortune in real estate and finance in the 1990s, he now runs a huge conglomerate across several industries from chemicals to investments.
Liu’s auction buys have not been without controversy — his US$8.2 million purchase of an “ancient” scroll of nine Chinese characters was derided as a fake by a group of Chinese experts but he brushed off the skepticism.
He’s also unapologetic over drinking from the “Chicken Cup,” depicting a rooster and hen tending their chicks.
“I wasn’t showing off,” he said. “I was just being myself.”
Liu’s latest purchase is a painting by Chinese master Zhang Daqian for US$35.93 million.
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