Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou (周杰倫) is to curate Sotheby’s first “Contemporary Curated: Asia” auction, to take place in Hong Kong next month, the international auction company said yesterday.
The auction series, titled “Jay Chou x Sotheby’s,” is to feature “exceptional works by blue-chip artists and rising stars handpicked by Jay to be offered in a highly anticipated evening sale on June 18” and an online day sale, the company said in a statement.
Sotheby’s described Chou as an avid art collector who is well known for incorporating elements of fine art, poetry and classical styles into his work.
Photo: Kuan Chen, Taipei Times
The 42-year-old Taiwanese, who has sold more than 30 million records and is known as the “King of Mandopop,” has established a growing reputation as an art collector over the past few years, the statement said.
“I have always believed in the power of art — a medium of expression that sees no boundary or limitation. It isn’t something you need to try to get close to — by nature, it envelops our life each and every day,” Chou said.
Florence Ho (何詩慧), who is a specialist/cataloguer in Sotheby’s contemporary art department, praised Chou for his vision in music and art, saying that this groundbreaking auction would definitely show the power of Asian art to the world.
The “Jay Chou x Sotheby’s” auction event is also to have an online day sale from June 10 to June 22, the statement said.
The evening sale is to be led by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled, an iconic work from 1985 that was featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine that year.
Chou has also selected three stage costumes from his 2016-2018 “The Invincible” world tour to be sold during the auction event to benefit charity, the statement added.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS