A taxi-driver-turned-financier, Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian (劉益謙), has stunned the art world with his record-setting purchases, the latest a famed Modigliani nude costing more than US$170 million.
Nu Couche, or “Reclining Nude,” painted by the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani in 1917-1918, was sold to Liu after a frantic nine-minute bidding war at a Christie’s auction in New York on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Liu yesterday said that the Modigliani would be displayed at his Long Museum Pudong in 2017 to mark its fifth anniversary.
Largely unknown outside his native China and rarefied art circles, 51-year-old Liu has made a string of purchases for his two museums in China’s commercial hub, Shanghai.
With personal wealth of US$1.38 billion according to Forbes magazine, Liu is among the ranks of the new Chinese super-rich.
He made his first fortune speculating in Shanghai’s newly established stock market in the 1990s, but now runs a huge conglomerate active in several industries.
In one of his most high-profile acquisitions, Liu set a record for Chinese porcelain last year by paying just over US$36 million for a tiny Ming Dynasty cup with a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks. He later posted photographs of himself drinking tea out of the vessel, known as a “chicken cup” for its painted motif, sparking an uproar on social media.
In April, Liu paid US$14.7 million for a 800-year-old Southern Song Dynasty vase tinted a milky blue and in March he snapped up a 600-year-old album of Ming Dynasty Buddhist art and calligraphy for US$14 million.
He has sought to justify some of his purchases as patriotism, saying he is returning objects to China that were taken or looted from the country.
“Like the Gettys and the Guggenheims and the Whitneys ... there’s a long history of museums in the West, and maybe now in China of collectors, wanting to make a name for themselves and make a mark on history,” Clare Jacobson, author of New Museums in China, said last year.
Last year, he paid a record US$45 million for a Tibetan thangka tapestry from the 15th century and later said it was part of his bid to bring historic artworks back to the mainland.
Liu’s US$8.2 million purchase of a scroll of nine Chinese characters supposedly dating to the Song Dynasty of 960-1279 was derided as a fake by a group of respected Chinese experts.
Liu has largely shunned the media spotlight following a New York Times series on China’s art market that called him a “new collector.”
Critics say Liu’s taste tends to be eclectic with his collection ranging from ancient to modern times, and spanning both Chinese and foreign artists.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese