Chinese billionaire collector Liu Yiqian is known for shelling out millions to acquire Chinese artworks, but he clearly has an eye for western masterpieces as well.
Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei bought Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 painting of a sultry nude “Nu Couche (Reclining Nude)” for $170.4 million, the second highest auction price ever paid for a work of art, after a Picasso painting that sold in May at Christie’s for $179.4 million.
The painting, which portraits a dark-haired woman reclining on a red couche, was initially expected to sell for arouLiu and his wife founded the Long Museum in Shanghai to house their collections, including a Tibetan tapestry he acquired last year for $45 million and a tiny Ming-era porcelain cup decorated with the image of a chicken he bought for $36.3 million.
“Our museum is just two to three years old and currently houses mostly Chinese traditional culture,” Mr. Liu told The Wall Street Journal. “This is a great opportunity for us to collect a world masterpiece and will bring our museum to a new era.”nd $100 million.
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