Wang Zhongjun, co-founder of China’s oldest and most influential private film studio Huayi Brothers, likes to joke that making movies was “purely accidental” and that his real passion is collecting and creating art.
“I rarely go to the office,” he once said. “My art studio is my office.”
But a cash crisis for Huayi, which began in 2018 and worsened this year after the pandemic shuttered Chinese cinemas, has forced Mr Wang — a self-described “uber-collector” who once splashed millions on Van Gogh and Picasso paintings — to change his tune. Last year, he began to sell some of his art to raise capital. “For the safety of the company, anything can be up for sale,” Mr Wang said last August when he first revealed the sales.
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