Chinese Collectors and the Art Market

Guest: Michael Plummer, Principal and Co-Founder of Artvest Partners LLC and Co-Director of the Art Fair Spring Masters New York  At a Christie’s auction this week, a Chinese collector rattled the art work by paying $170.4 million for a painting of an outstretched nude woman by early-20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani. That $170.4m figure is the second highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction and more than twice the previous high price for a Modigliani. The collector is Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire. He and his wife plan to exhibit the painting in an art museum they opened five years ago in Shanghai.