The lucky buyer of the Amedeo Modigliani painting sold by Christie's for the record sum of 170,4 million dollars (just under 160 million euros at current exchange rates, the second highest auction ever) is finally known: the Financial Times revealed that it is the Chinese collector Liu Yiqian, former taxi driver, who participated in the tender by telephone in order to buy the painting by the Livorno-born artist – entitled “Nu Couché” –.
The “Reclining Nude” was sold by Laura Mattioli Rossi, to whom Christie's had guaranteed a minimum price of 100 million dollars. Thanks to the millionaire sale, Modigliani enters the 100 million auction club by right, of which they are already part Picasso, Bacon, Giacometti, Warhol and Munch.
Liu Yiqian, together with his wife Wang Wei, he founded two of the most famous private museums in Shanghai, the Long Museum Pudong and the Long Museum West Bund. Yiqian is one of the numerous Chinese multimillionaires, famous for his "artistic" obsession which translates into the purchase of everything in life that is considered "beautiful": modern and classical art, paintings, drawings, both from China and from the rest of the world.
A former taxi driver, Yiqian owes his fortune when in the 90s he attempted the adventure on the Stock Exchange, also in Shanghai where the Chinese one is based. He and his wife have collected numerous fine pieces over the past 20 years, putting together the largest private art collection in China. The millionaire has created a scandal a few months ago for drinking tea from an ancient ceramic cup, about 500 years old, which apparently belonged to a Chinese emperor.
