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Ma’s antique museum arrives in Shanghai
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THE much-awaited Guan Fu Museum Shanghai opened on the 37th floor of Shanghai Centre recently, albeit on trial.
Ma Weidu, perhaps one of the best-known antique collectors in China, is the owner of the Guan Fu Museum and Guan Fu Treasury in Beijing. He has now brought some of his “treasures” for the local public to appreciate.
Ma named Guan Fu Museum after the Taoist classic word guan fu, which means, “Look at it again and again.”
The Guan Fu Museum in Shanghai occupies an area of 6,000 square meters — almost the size of a football field — and Guan Fu Treasury is based in the basement of Shanghai Center.
The museum showcases nearly 500 antiques collected by Ma in four categories — porcelain, Buddha sculpture, gold wares and furniture.
Unlike many Chinese collectors who prefer to keep a low profile, Ma enjoys being in the limelight. He frequently appears in magazines, newspapers and on TV programs, sharing his experiences in the field and his knowledge with the public. In his view, antiques illustrate “how great our ancestors were.”
In the 1980s, Ma started to buy rare furniture, ceramics and jade — all at prices vastly lower than today. Because he started early, Ma accumulated more than 1,000 Chinese antique pieces, some of which are considered priceless.
In 1996 in Beijing, he opened China’s first privately owned heritage museum.
The Guan Fu Museum Shanghai is more eye-catching besides just antiques.
There are two hanging gardens on the same floor. One is designed in Song Dynasty (960 AD-1279) style that fuses architecture, rock and mount, reminiscent of a traditional ink-wash painting. The other is designed like a Western Olive Square to symbolize the once lost civilization through tattoo, characters and eight huge columns.
But the 480-square-meter enamel floor is the most impressive. It cost 134 craftsmen 321,681 hours to put it up and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Record as the world’s biggest enamel floor.
Different from other private museums in China, Ma has his own business mode to support the museum — the Guan Fu Treasury in B/5 in the basement of the Shanghai Center.
“The locals can put their collections, such as antiques, cash and other treasured things, in the safe boxes inside our treasury. The rental fees of these safe boxes will act as another financial support for the museum,” he said.
It is widely believed that the operation cost of a decent private museum is not less than 10 million yuan a year. The entrance fees can hardly make ends meet.
However, the rental fees from the safe boxes eases some of the financial burden.
The 3,000 safe boxes in the basement — reportedly can even survive nuclear bombing — are new to the locals.
“We have already received many reservations and inquiries for these safe boxes,” he said.
Although the museum is still in a trial mode till its formal opening, those who have made reservations for the safe boxes are allowed free access to the museum.
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