Movie mogul says Van Gogh still life was cheap at US$62m
Print Edition
A CHINESE film mogul who bought a Vincent van Gogh still life for a record US$62 million last month, yesterday admitted he would have paid even more for the masterpiece.
Wang Zhongjun, chairman of the high-powered Huayi Brothers film studio, bought van Gogh’s 1890 work “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies” for US$61.8 million at Sotheby’s in New York in November.
Speaking at a presentation at the auction house’s Hong Kong gallery Wang said the price — a record for a still life painting by the artist — was “a bit lower” than he expected to pay.
“I like it, it’s not a matter of price, it’s like I didn’t spend money, it hangs on the wall and it belongs to me,” Wang said.
“Van Gogh is my favorite artist in terms of his use of colors and many other aspects,” he said.
The painting had been valued at US$30 to US$50 million before the sale.
Wang, who said he will hang it at his Hong Kong home, is the latest rich Chinese businessman to make an eyebrow-raising art buy. Forbes Magazine put his net worth at almost US$1 billion.
Huayi Brothers Media is one of the largest private entertainment groups in China and has produced and distributed some of the country’s most popular movies and TV shows, according to its website.
Last year, tycoon Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group bought the 1950 Pablo Picasso painting “Claude and Paloma” for US$28 million, more than double the high estimate of US$12 million.
The company came under fire for the extravagant purchase, with some Chinese Internet users questioning Wang’s patriotism and the painting’s value.
Chinese collectors have sent prices for their own country’s heritage spiralling on the back of its economic boom, and are now turning their attention to Western items too.
The last great wave of Asian buying came as Japan reached the height of its economic power in the 1980s, culminating in 1990 when paper tycoon Ryoei Saito bought van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr Gachet for US$82.5 million and Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette for US$78.1 million.
He later sparked outrage when he said he would have the works put in his coffin and cremated with him when he died.
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