--FILE--antiquariato cinese Liu collettore Yiqian, destra, fondatore del museo lunga, parla come sua moglie Wang Wei ascolta durante una cerimonia di apertura per il po
--FILE--Chinese antique collector Liu Yiqian, right, founder of Long Museum, speaks as his wife Wang Wei listens during an opening ceremony for the porcelain Chicken Cup of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Emperor Chenghua Period, which was bought for US$36 million at a Hong Kong auction, at Long Museum in Shanghai, China, 18 December 2014. The auction world loves Wang Wei and Liu Yiqian, her husband. They embody a breed of newly moneyed Chinese collectors with very broad taste and they have spent a good chunk of an estimated US$1.2 billion fortune (according to Forbes) on art since 1992. They even have their own museums to house their growing collections - two Long Museums in Shanghai and, by next spring, another one in Chongqing. In April last year, Liu famously swiped his American Express card 24 times to pay for a HK$281 million, Ming dynasty ceramic "chicken cup" and then, with proprietorial swagger, sipped tea from it in front of a bemused world press. This March, the man who has become a billionaire by playing the notoriously volatile A-share stock market threw down another HK$348 million for an embroidered Tibetan tapestry, setting an international auction record for a Chinese work of art. This sort of high-profile bidding has made them celebrities of the auction market, a place where most collectors prefer anonymity. Internationally, it is the couple's collection of antiques and modern and contemporary art that grabs the most interest. Back home, their sizeable hoard of Chinese communist revolutionary art is equally well-known and other local museums often ask to borrow from the collection.
