Hong Kong's Future M Museum Gets $163 Million Art Donation from Swiss Collector Uli Sigg
Scene Asia - WSJ
By Lara Day
- Reuters
- Art collector Uli Sigg poses in front of Wang Keping’s ‘Chain,’ one of the 1,463 Chinese contemporary artworks he donated to M+, Hong Kong’s future museum of visual culture.
A Trove of Chinese Art
In a gift valued at $163 million, Swiss collector Uli Sigg has donated almost 1,500 Chinese contemporary artworks to M+, Hong Kong's future museum of visual art. View highlights from the new M+ Sigg Collection.
The 1,463 donated artworks will be supplemented by 47 additional pieces, which M+ has agreed to buy for $22.7 million. The collection includes works by Ai Weiwei, Zeng Fanzhi and Zhang Xiaogang, with highlights such as Yue Minjun’s “Liberty Leading the People,” a 1995 nod to Eugène Delacroix, and Wang Keping’s “Chain,” a 1979 wooden sculpture of a man being strangled.
Mr. Sigg said that China’s freedom-of-expression “constraints” moved him to give his collection to a Hong Kong museum rather than one in the mainland. He added that he hoped his contribution would act as a “vote of confidence” in the city’s bid to become a global art hub. Hong Kong is currently the world’s third largest art-auction market after London and New York, while its international art fair, Art HK, has been acquired by Art Basel.
The museum, part of the city’s West Kowloon Cultural District, plans to open its doors in 2017.
Corrections & Amplifications: An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled Zeng Fanzhi’s given name.
Read the article online here: Hong Kong's Future M Museum Gets $163 Million Art Donation from Swiss Collector Uli Sigg - Scene Asia - WSJ
