‘Uncultured’ multi-billionaire is China’s biggest fine-art collector
Liu Yiqian alway bids for the top lots, and has amassed a collection on a par with mainland's best
He deprecatingly calls himself a tuhao - the Putonghua term for nouveau riche with barely the culture to match the wealth. But billionaire Liu Yiqian's huge collection of Chinese art suggests a finer taste than he lets on.
At a Sotheby's auction early this month, the Shanghai collector paid HK$281.24 million for a palm-sized Ming dynasty (1368-1644) cup. Showing a garden scene of a rooster and hen tending to their chicks, the "chicken cup" is one of just 16 known to exist.
"Though Liu likes to say he knows nothing about antiques, he has an eye for the best in the market," says Zhu Shaoliang, an art collector who has known Liu for several years. "That's why his collection so far is on a par with the treasures at the Palace Museum and other top museums on the mainland," Zhu says.
Liu, 50, comes from humble beginnings. Born in 1963 to a working-class family in Shanghai, he left school at age 14 to help the family business, making handbags which his mother would sell on the street. At 20, he rented a shop at the Yuyuan Bazaar in the centre of old Shanghai, selling souvenirs and accessories.
His first big break came in 1990, when he was 27. Liu was in Shenzhen buying materials for bags when he heard about stock trading for the first time from a former classmate. In December that year, China launched its first exchange, in Shanghai.