Wang Jianlin Buys Monet Masterpiece for $20.1M

On May 5, Chinese property developer Wang Jianlin sent out a press release in five languages announcing that he had passed Li Ka-shing to become Asia’s richest man, after his fortune had increased to an estimated $36.2 billion.

In case anyone who couldn’t read English, Mandarin, French, Spanish or Portuguese missed that milestone, however, the former army officer turned billionaire underlined his message that same day by snatching up a Monet masterpiece for $20.1 million at auction.

Aside from the multi-lingual PR barrage and the painting purchase, Wang and his company Dalian Wanda are becoming a fixture in the headlines with stories seeming to alternate between accounts of new overseas acquisitions and questions of hidden ties to the families of top Chinese leaders.

Chinese Tycoon Adding to His Collection

The purchase of the Impressionist oil painting Bassin aux Nymphéas, Les Rosiers by Wang’s Dalian Wanda Group was confirmed this week by Sotheby’s, according to an account by Forbes. The holding company bought the painting, which is widely considered to be one of the most important representative works from the later career of a founder of the Impressionist school, at the auction house’s New York Impressionist & Modern Art event.

Wang can add the painting to the Picasso piece, Claude et Paloma, that Wanda bought in New York for $28.2 million in 2013. Commenting on the acquisition, Guo Qingxiang, who curates Wanda’s growing collection said, “Since the purchase of Picasso’s Claude et Paloma in 2013, we have been devoted to collecting original and important works representative of key developments in art history.”

Wang Among China’s Most Active Investors

Wang has seen his fortune rise by a third from $24.2 billion last year according to Forbes Rich List, thanks to a surge in shares of his listed companies Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Wanda Cinema Line over the last six months. Wanda Commercial had its Hong Kong IPO in December of last year, and Wanda Cinema Line debuted on the Shenzhen exchange in January. Since that time many listed mainland firms have seen their shares rise in value thanks to the current bull run in Chinese equities.

Wang has seized on this equity boom to further expand his empire, picking up a stake in Spain’s Atletico Madrid in January for €40 million ($46.34 million), and announcing plans for a $1 billion real estate project in Sydney that same month.

However, the developer who started out running a small state-owned firm in China’s Liaoning province has also been stung by accounts in the international press of hidden dealings with the families of China’s political elite. A ground-breaking account in the New York Times last month revealed how, on his way to building China’s largest commercial real estate developer, the tycoon had brought on board relatives of top Chinese leaders, including a sister of Xi Jinping, as early investors.