How many museums can two billionaires open in one country? For the Chinese art collectors Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, the answer is four and counting. The couple are due to open a branch of their Long Museum in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, in 2018. They announced their plans at the opening of their third outpost, the Long Museum Chongqing, in May. (The Long’s two other locations are in the couple’s hometown of Shanghai.)
The couple are rapidly buying art to fuel their growing museum empire. At Art Basel in June, Liu acquired a massive strip painting by Gerhard Richter from Marian Goodman Gallery. The German artist will be the subject of a forthcoming solo exhibition at Long’s West Bund location in Shanghai.
“Long Museum’s ambition is to become a global museum,” said Wang, who is also the museum’s director, at the opening of the Chongqing venue. “We do not want to be rich people who monopolise these masterpieces: rather we want to contribute to international exchange, by bringing Western art to the Chinese people.”