As the world sat up and took major notice of the Contemporary Fine Art investment market since 2010, Chinese contemporary art remains one of the most stable & continuously soaring sector globally with the largest number of fascinating & distinctive artists and high quality artworks.
Due to this market phenomenon, many big-time collectors opened private art museums over the years, dedicating a relative portion of their ever-growing collection to Chinese contemporary art to share and showcase with the public, some of them right here in sunny Singapore. Let us take a look.
1. George Wong (Hong Kong), Parkview Museum
One of Hong Kong’s richest men, Mr. Wong owns around 10,000 works by Chinese contemporary & European modern artists such as Zhang Xiaogang, Pan Dehai, Luo Brothers, Fang Lijun, Hua Qing, Tamen, He Wenjue, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh just to name a few. Mr. Wong recently opened the first Southeast Asia branch of his private museum in Singapore’s Parkview Square, Bugis Street.
2. Dr Woffles Wu (Singapore), Museum of Chinese Contemporary Art
Fascinated with anything ‘Chairman Mao’, Dr Wu owns a private museum fondly named the ‘Museum of Chinese Contemporary Art’ specially dedicated to Mao-themed works in Singapore’s Kaki Bukit Road. Pictured above is Dr Wu with established artist Li Zhanyang’s sculpture set.
3. Yan Lugen (China), Baijia Lake Museum
This Nanjing real estate mogul created a stir in recent years for putting in billions of dollars into the Art scene, collecting a wide range of Chinese contemporary and modern artworks at an astonishing speed. By Mr. Yan’s estimate, he has around 20,000 works in his growing collection. Here is Mr. Yan with Chinese contemporary ink painter Qin Feng’s works. One of his museum branches is scheduled to be opened in Singapore in 2017.
4. Judith & Kerr Neilson (Australia), White Rabbit Museum
The White Rabbit Collection is owned by Judith Neilson, who was inspired to establish it on a 2001 trip to Beijing. By early 2016, it included almost 2000 works by more than 500 artists. In 2015, the Neilsons divorced and according to Australian media, it was reported that Kerr, a finance investor, handed a $3billion slice of empire to his ex-wife.
5. Liu Yiqian & Wang Wei (China), Long Museum
Wang Wei is one of the world’s flashiest art collectors. With her husband, the Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian, she recently splashed $170.4m on a Modigliani painting, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Housing Chinese contemporary works, antiques and European modern masters collections, the museum has two locations in Shanghai: the Long Museum Pudong and Long Museum West Bund. In 2016, a third location was opened in Chongqing and a Wuhan branch is scheduled for 2018.
6. Deddy Kusuma (Indonesia), Museum-in-a-Home
Most of Indonesia’s top contemporary art collector Mr. Kusuma’s collection is on display in his home and anyone can come to his residence to view his collection. ‘Just contact me for an appointment’. He laughed. His collection consists of 60% Indonesian artists, 20% Chinese and 20% others. One of his favorite works is by the Chinese contemporary artist Chen Wenling, whom visited his house. ‘I wanted him to advise me on the best location to display the 3 red sculptures which I had bought from him. We placed them by the poolside because the sculptures talk about how children feel cold and therefore it made sense for them to be near a water element. I loved how the sculptures appeared to belong there.’ said Mr. Kusuma.
7. Uli Sigg (Switzerland), M+ Museum
Last but not least, lets not forget about the ‘godfather’ of Chinese contemporary art, Swiss collector Uli Sigg. In 2012, Mr. Sigg, who had the world’s largest Chinese contemporary art collection, donated a portion of his valuable collection to the M+ Museum in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. The collection is known as the M+ Sigg Collection.
Having closely watched the development of Chinese contemporary art over the decades, at its height, Sigg says his collection consisted of roughly 2,300 works, and he estimates he met about 2,000 artists over the years, most of which he bought from directly since there were no firmly established galleries as there are today. At M+, over 80 works by 50 artists including Ai Weiwei, Fang Lijun, Geng Jianyi, Luo Brothers and Zhang Xiaogang. It marks the first-ever chronological exhibition about the emergence and evolution of Chinese contemporary art throughout the years.