Liu Yiqian shelled out $170.4 million for Modigliani’s Nu Couché

Did This Chinese Billionaire Rack Up Millions of AmEx Rewards Points Buying That Modigliani?

Imaginechina/AP.

by

• Rachel Tashjian

The buyer who shelled out $170.4 million for Modigliani’s Nu Couché—the second-highest price paid at auction, ever—has been revealed as a Chinese billionaire with an irresistible rags-to-riches story: Liu Yiqian is a former taxi driver turned investing magnate who reportedly pays for his historic auction purchases on an American Express Centurion, meaning he can fly wherever he wants, whenever he wants.

Liu has already established himself as a major buyer of Asian art with a knack for scandalously ostentatious displays of the wealth he amassed investing in the stock market. After paying $36.3 million for a Ming-dynasty ceramic cup at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in July 2014, Liu scandalized the art world when a picture of him gleefully sipping tea from the 500-year-old object once owned by emperors surfaced. If that let-them-eat-cake moment wasn’t enough, Liu also paid for the cup with his American Express card, swiping 24 times and racking up almost 422 million rewards points, according to Bloomberg.

Just a few months later, he paid $45 million for a 15th-century Tibetan tapestry—again with his Centurion. He used his points to fly with his family to New York, where, according to Bloomberg, Liu drew attention for posing for a photo in his underwear in their St. Regis hotel room, assuming the pose of a Tibetan yogi statue he planned to bid for at an upcoming Christie’s New York auction. He won it at a price of $4.9 million.

Courtesy of Christie's.

This appears to be Liu’s first major purchase of Western art; he told The New York Times of the sensual reclining nude, “This work is relatively nice compared to [Modigliani’s] other nude paintings.” He added that he plans to display the work at one of his two Shanghai museums: “It will be an opportunity for Chinese art lovers to see good artworks without having to leave the country, which is one of the main reasons why we founded the museums.”

Liu has not confirmed whether he paid for the Modigliani with his American Express card, but we can only guess what kind of splash he has in store to celebrate



Link: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/11/modigliani-auction-buyer-amex?mbid=nl_1110_Daily&CNDID=37583177&spMailingID=8239070&spUserID=MTA0NTc2NzY3NjU3S0&spJobID=800995750&spReportId=ODAwOTk1NzUwS0

Related: How Xin Li Went from the Runway to the Center of Nine-Figure Art Auctions