qt purchasing:中国藏家改变艺术品市场格局

2012年 01月 31日 07:53 中国藏家改变艺术品市场格局
评论(3) 在北京郊区一个名为“乐土”（Paradise）的私人会所，有一个无窗的大房间，这是杨滨展示其现当代艺术藏品的地方。

Keith Bedford/Redux for The Wall Street Journal杨滨是北京最大的汽车经销商之一，也是中国新一批收藏家的代表人物。不久前，杨滨在这里接待了几位从台湾来的朋友。招呼朋友们就座之后，他拿起遥控器对着一组 面陈列板，一按遥控按钮，这些陈列板便开始滑开。每块陈列板后都展示着他最近入手的一些藏品，既有毛主席时期的革命者画像，也有色调明快的中国新秀画家的抽象派作品。在朋友们为这一展示拍手称赞时，杨滨笑了笑，点燃一支雪茄。

无论是明代花瓶，还是中国当代抽象派画作，不吝为这些藏品一掷千金的中国藏家正在改变艺术品市场的格局。有时，这些艺术品的价格甚至超过了雷尼?马格里特（Rene Magritte）和克莱福德?斯蒂尔（Clyfford Still）等西方热门艺术家的作品。

据艺术品市场分析机构Artprice的数据显示，去年拍卖市场成交价格最高的10件艺术品中，有三件出自中国艺术家之手。其中，自学成才的齐白石1946年的画作《松柏高立图?篆书四言联》创下去年最高拍卖价格。去年5月，这幅精美的画卷在中国嘉德(China Guardian)2011春拍上以6,500万美元的天价成交，价格远远超过了毕加索（Pablo Picasso）、罗伊?里奇特斯坦（Roy Lichtenstein）以及安迪?沃霍尔（Andy Warhol）的作品。总的说来，在去年上半年，中国藏家的艺术品购买额约占佳士得（Christie's）全球艺术品成交额的五分之一。此外，苏富比（Sotheby's）说，去年中国大陆买家也将该拍卖行在亚洲的艺术品成交额推升到近9.6亿美元，较2010年大涨47%。

Mu Boyan/Aye Gallery杨滨家里摆放着这件由牟柏岩创作的雕塑。这就是热闹的中国艺术品市场。在这个市场中有一大批富豪企业家，他们收藏艺术品的劲头足可与任何俄罗斯寡头相匹敌。即使在中国经济出现增长放缓的早期迹象、全球其他地方的许多藏家都出手更为谨慎时，从北京到重庆，各地的藏家却都在建私人博物馆、开画廊，投身到生意兴隆的艺术品市场当中去。

54岁的杨滨是北京最大的汽车经销商之一，也是中国新一批收藏家的代表人物。过去10年中，他收藏了近1,000件艺术品，其中包括陈逸飞和张晓刚等中国当代重量级画家的作品。陈逸飞善于描绘身处浪漫典雅氛围中的女性形象，张晓刚则以令人难忘的全家福系列作品著称。此外，杨滨对艺术品的选择也被当地的顶尖藏家和艺术经纪人密切追踪。他还出资帮助创办了北京两家风格独特的画廊，其中一家由他的妻子晏青打理。他还从去年开始进口和转销具有收藏价值的红酒，比如法国波尔多葡萄酒。他自己收藏的30,000瓶红酒大都贮藏在北京城外的一个酒窖中。

杨滨在收藏圈中的朋友中有一位上海的夜总会老板，他叫乔志斌。他开设的“上海之夜”KTV有四层楼，店内陈列着艾未未的概念雕塑、杨福东拍摄的人们在派对上饮着香槟的时髦照片，还有几幅曾梵志的《面具》系列作品，KTV的收银台后挂着现居北京的画家季大纯的大尺幅油画《眼球》。

Courtesy Qiao Zhibing/Justin Jin夜总会老板乔志斌在艺术家张恩利的油画前留影。他还有一位名叫张锐的朋友，是北京瑞居酒店的老板。他已经开始用从当代唐人艺术中心借来的画作装饰每一间客房，他本人的藏品也有800件之多。这家画廊酒店尚未开业，部分是因为他涉嫌向一家企业的党组书记行贿而被拘留了18个月。张锐否认有过任何行贿行为，但表示作为获释条件他确实在去年6月交了一笔罚金。如今，他正努力获取余下的施工许可证。

专营当代艺术品的北京艺门画廊的总监马芝安（Meg Maggio）说，在中国，仅仅非常有钱还不够；对于这些人而言，它（收藏）关系到的是建立一种美好的生活方式──他们想得到好物件、美酒以及一切美好的东西。

亚洲艺术中心（北京）总监Alan Lee说，他有一位名叫张秋东（音）的客户，是一家健身器材厂的老板，此人自诩为“封面杀手”，因为他喜欢竞拍拍卖目录封面上的艺术品。

Alan Lee说，负面影响是，这些进入艺术品市场的新富藏家令高风险的艺术品投机之风愈刮愈烈，造成年轻一代艺术家作品的价格飙升而且成交量大，比如《眼球》的创作者季大纯，而这些人的作品是否具备长远的影响力仍不得而知。艺术投资咨询公司Artvest说，中国投资者近期至少设立了八只艺术基金，这些基金购买艺术品就是为了日后转手获利而，而世界其他地区大约仅有20只类似的基金。

中国的画廊界也同样是一派放任自流的情形。像杨滨这样的藏家有时既是画廊的股东或者合伙人，又是画廊的客户。这种情况可能会引发潜在利益冲突，因为股东可能会利用自己的身份去购买画廊最顶尖的作品。七年前，杨滨出资帮助妻子晏青开设了主营当代艺术品的Aye画廊，但他声称自己并不管理妻子代理的艺术家，对画廊展览的作品也没有优先购买权。为了集中精力打理红酒生意，最近杨滨撤出了他在三年前作为出资合伙人参与创建的另一家当代艺术画廊──东站画廊(Eastation)。现在他依然从这两家画廊购买艺术品。

Beijing Poly International Auction Co. Ltd.七年前，杨滨用6万美元买下了这幅由陈衍宁创作的油画。上个月，他以100万美元的价格将其售出。艺术经纪人和艺术家们表示，杨滨到底是在努力建立博物馆级的收藏还是在伺机套现获利, 目前还不清楚。张晓刚说，中国是一个很新的艺术品市场，谁是藏家谁是投机者我们很难分辨。

不过，这种身份模糊并没有给杨滨带来困扰。他说，投资艺术品是好是坏还说不准，但是如果没有资金，市场就没法发展。

在中国当代艺术品收藏圈，杨滨是一个不容忽视的人物。他高个方脸，一头浓密的黑发。他像展示自己孩子的照片一样向熟人展示用手机拍下来的艺术品的照片。他还常常穿着polo衫、黑色灯芯绒裤和运动鞋出现在本该穿正式礼服的晚宴上。

他在香港也和一些收藏家有来往，比如瑞士信贷（Credit Suisse）的Tony Chiu和法国巴黎银行（BNP Paribas）的Daisy Cheng，这两人都说曾就收藏哪些艺术家的作品征求过杨滨的意见。杨滨在北京的顶楼公寓已经成为越来越多的年轻企业家和投行人士的午餐聚餐点，其中有些人半开玩笑地称他为“杨总”。

杨滨之所以能快速建立起自己的收藏，部分原因在于他一刻不停地购买艺术品。他说，有时候他在一场拍卖会上就购买几十件艺术品，或者从喜欢的画廊或画家那一口气买几百件作品。除了在他北京的六家车行工作之外，他和助手还常常光顾亚洲和欧洲各地举行的艺术展和拍卖会。

杨滨今年最看好的是北京艺术家刘炜，后者以用皮质狗咬胶创作的微缩都市景观而名声大振。（刘炜2005年的作品《爱它，咬它》现由英国的广告大亨萨奇(Charles Saatchi)收藏。）两个月前，杨滨飞到香港，花了大约123,000美元从一个精品拍卖商那买入刘炜1999年的犬肖像作品《狗No. 2》。几天之后，在北京的一次拍卖会上，刘炜的几件作品以两倍于此的价格成交。

杨滨认为，尽管刘炜的作品获得了像萨奇这样的西方知名收藏家的投资，他依然是一个被低估的艺术家；与有高古轩(Larry Gagosian)做代理的曾梵志不同，他不是一个明星艺术家，但他也同样重要。

此外，随着对陈衍宁等中国写实派画家作品的需求攀升，杨滨也开始将这些画家较早时期的一些作品脱手。上个月，杨滨来到北京一家豪华酒店，中国最大的拍卖行保利(Poly)正在这里举办拍卖会。此时，拍卖场已经挤得满满当当。和往常一样，杨滨站在了拍卖场后面。拍卖进行到一半时，他指着挂在远处 壁上、画着满满一船人的一幅大尺幅油画说：“那是我（收藏）的”。七年前，杨滨以约60,000美元的价格将这幅陈衍宁1984年的作品《新浪》揽入囊中，并准备在这次拍卖会上将其出售。保利把这幅画的起拍价定在了629,000美元，至少有5位藏家举牌竞拍。这幅画最后以100万美元的价格成交，创下陈衍宁作品拍价新高。

竞拍开始前几分钟，杨滨悄悄溜下楼，这样他就可以一边抽烟一边在酒店吧台观看拍卖的电视实况直播。一槌定音之后，他拍了一把身旁男子的肩膀放声大笑起来。后来，他听说买家是一名来自山西的煤老板。

在同一场拍卖会上，杨滨自己也参与了一些具有潜在战略意义的竞拍，对象是他妻子的Aye画廊代理的一位艺术家。他请来一位个子比他高的朋友站在身前替他竞拍陈文骥一幅创作于1990年的超写实作品──《一块靠在 上的玻璃》。这幅画原本最高估价125,800美元，在其价格被其他竞拍者推升到比这个价格高两倍还多之后，杨滨和朋友退出了竞拍。最终，这幅画被一名电话委托竞拍者以361,663美元的价格买走，位列陈文骥作品拍卖价格的第二位。

两天之后，陈文骥新作展《什么》在Aye画廊举办。杨滨说，他之所以参与竞拍陈文骥的作品，部分原因是陈文骥的早期作品很少见，尽管有他妻子这一层关系，陈文骥的画他一幅都没有。他说，如果能通过把价格定在一个合理的范围帮助到妻子开办的画廊的话，对艺术家本人也有好处。

北京艺术品经纪商马芝安认为，杨滨并非刻意采用某种手法抬高其藏品价值。她说，更多时候，他似乎是一时兴起参与竞拍，劝说自己的朋友加入其中，并且陶醉于这种竞争的感觉。他会用手肘捅捅身边的朋友说：“买吧，你刚赚了这么多钱！”然后这些人就会举起竞拍牌。这么做无非出于一种好玩的心态，并非事先就有计划。

杨滨的祖父是一位山东农民，父亲是北京一家工厂的工人，他自己于文化大革命期间在北京长大。1978年，他成为恢复高考后的首批大学生之一，专业是政治经济学。

大学毕业后，杨滨获在机械部得到一份工作。就是在做这个工作的时候，他与海外银行和汽车制造商建立了联系，帮助政府进口公车。也就是在这个时候，他遇见了现在的妻子晏青，当时她是一名机械设计师，上班的地点离他集体宿舍所在地只隔一条街。1988年，他们步入了婚姻殿堂。

几年之后，政府开始允许个人创办公司，杨滨夫妻利用他们的人脉获得了通用汽车的合同，开始在国内销售别克、雪佛兰和凯迪拉克汽车。1999年，他们创办了上海首家通用汽车授权经销店──达世行，单单在第一年就卖出了1,000辆别克。晏青开始组织地区性车展，后来他们在上海买了一栋大房子，但房子却显得空荡荡。

Courtesy Qiao Zhibing乔志斌开设的“上海之夜”KTV。杨滨说：“那时我们才意识到需要一些东西来装点 壁。”杨滨在上海和北京的七家车行去年总共卖出了大概11,000辆车，他自己开一辆黑色的凯迪拉克凯雷德。

2000年，杨滨付给上海当地一家画廊约120,000美元买了一些合适的画作来装饰房子。不过久而久之，他渐渐对艺术家本人产生了兴趣。一两年后，他无意中看到当代画家石冲的一幅裸体人像，用光非常大胆，售价约84,000美元。从那时起他便产生了拥有能带来新感受的作品的念头。2004年，他和妻子搬回北京，购买艺术品的冲动达到无法抑制的地步，于是他决定卖掉自己新近获得的丰田汽车特许经销店，然后用这笔现金购买艺术品。交易完成后的几个星期中，他把从这桩交易中获得的360万美元利润全部用在了购买艺术品上。他的妻子晏青说，每次看到喜欢的东西时，我们总是忍不住。

上个月，杨滨在朋友张锐的新酒店举办了一次品酒晚宴，邀请了100多名客人参加。酒店白色大堂各处的壁橱都陈列着艺术品，其中还包括一段安妮-朱莉（Anne-Julie）拍摄的一匹马走跑步机上行走的视频，走廊顶端还点缀着“阳江组”创作的烛蜡树等特别受欢迎的精美作品。年轻的男男女女围在酒店的餐桌旁，一边吃着小羊排一边畅饮博塞贝戈庄园(Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot)红酒。

近来，杨滨有了一个新爱好──美酒。在创办自己第一家车行后不久，他第一次开始尝试红酒，现在他每天都要喝上一两杯。他把自己最好的2,000瓶红酒留在了香港，其中包括法国波尔多拉图酒庄（Chateau Latour）出产的红酒。如此一来，他便可以在香港出差时品尝这些酒，并且也不用为了把这些酒带回内地而交上一笔税。去年，他进口了20,000瓶价格低一些的年份葡萄酒，然后把它们卖给内地的朋友。迄今为止，他的红酒生意销售额已经超过了300万美元，他说从中赚到的钱都用来付自己的酒钱。

去年5月份，杨滨和妻子晏青搬到了位于北京使馆区某公寓楼18层的顶层新公寓。整个公寓艺术品的陈列中西合璧，餐厅挂着美国艺术家罗克西?潘恩（Roxy Paine）一幅充斥着白色油彩的油画，旁边摆放的是一座真人大小的亚洲男子雕塑，男子身体肥胖，肚皮朝下趴在一块齐腰高的人造冰块上，后背排列着一组倒置的香槟高脚杯，其中一个杯子在最近一次派对上意外折断，雕塑的创作者牟柏岩立即让人送来了一个替换用的高脚杯。牟柏岩的作品也在晏青的Aye画廊展览。

杨滨会不时前往北京一个艺术区搜罗新作品。这里原来是一座军工厂，几十年前他的父亲就在这里工作，可以说这是一种奇妙的巧合。如今，这个地区依然沿用原来的官方代号──798。杨滨说，过去，我父亲在那儿花了一辈子；如今，我在那儿花钱。”

Art's New Pecking Order

On the outskirts of Beijing in a private club house called Paradise, there is a large, windowless room where Yang Bin displays his collection of modern and contemporary art.

'Sit down and get ready,' Mr. Yang recently told a few friends visiting from Taiwan. Grabbing a remote control, he turned to a set of wall panels that, with a click, began to slide apart. Each panel revealed a few of his recent acquisitions, from Chairman Mao-era portraits of revolutionaries to brightly colored abstracts by China's rising stars. As his friends applauded the slide-show, Mr. Yang grinned and lit a cigar.

The art market is being transformed by Chinese collectors willing to pay top dollar for everything from Ming vases to contemporary Chinese abstracts. In some cases, these works are outstripping prices paid for blue-chip Western artists like Rene Magritte and Clyfford Still.

Three of the 10 most expensive art works sold at auction last year were by Chinese artists, according to art-market analyst Artprice. Last year's priciest painting: 'Eagle Standing on Pine Tree' (1946) by self-taught painter Qi Baishi. This delicate scroll rocketed ahead of colorful canvases by Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol when it sold for $65 million at auction house China Guardian in May. Overall, purchases by Chinese collectors accounted for roughly a fifth of Christie's global sales during the first half of last year; Sotheby's says mainland buyers also lifted its sales in Asia to nearly $960 million last year, up 47% from 2010.

Welcome to China's rollicking art world, a marketplace flush with wealthy entrepreneurs who are amassing art at a clip to rival any Russian oligarch. From Beijing to Chongqing, collectors are building private museums, opening galleries and embracing an exuberant art scene, even as China's economy shows early signs of a slowdown and many collectors elsewhere are buying more cautiously.

Mr. Yang, age 54 and one of Beijing's biggest car dealers, is emblematic of the new wave of Chinese collectors: Over the past decade, he has collected nearly 1,000 artworks by contemporary heavyweights like Chen Yifei, who paints women in romantic interiors, and Zhang Xiaogang, known for haunting family portraits. Mr. Yang's art choices are closely tracked by the region's top collectors and dealers. He has financed the opening of a pair of edgy art galleries in Beijing, one of which is managed by his wife, Yan Qing. Last year he began importing and reselling collectible wines like Bordeaux. (He keeps most of his own 30,000-bottle collection stored in a cellar outside town.)

The collectors in his broader circle include Qiao Zhibing, a nightclub owner based in Shanghai. Mr. Qiao is outfitting his four-story karaoke bar, Shanghai Night, with conceptual sculptures by Ai Weiwei, sleek photographs of Champagne-drinking partygoers by Yang Fudong and paintings of men in suits and smiling face masks by Zeng Fanzhi. Behind Mr. Qiao's cashier's desk looms Beijing artist Ji Dachun's large painting of an eyeball.

Another friend, Beijing hotelier Zhang Rui, has started decorating every room in his new Gallery Hotel with pieces borrowed from a gallery called Tang. He also has an 800-piece collection of his own. The hotel hasn't opened yet, in part because Mr. Zhang recently spent 18 months in detention for allegedly bribing a Party secretary. Mr. Zhang denies making any bribe but says he did pay a fine as a condition of his release last June, and he's now seeking the remaining building permits.

'It's not enough in China to be wildly wealthy,' says Meg Maggio, director of Pekin Fine Arts, a Beijing gallery specializing in contemporary art. 'For all these guys, it's about building a beautiful way of life -- they want the nice objects, the good wine, the whole package.'

Alan Lee, who runs Beijing gallery Asia Art Center, says one of his clients, a fitness-equipment manufacturer named Chang Chiu Dun, calls himself the 'Cover Killer' because he 'likes to buy artworks that have been on the covers of auction catalogs.'

The downside, Mr. Lee says, is that this influx of newly wealthy collectors is fueling risky speculation on art, leading to price swings and heavy trading volumes for younger artists like the eyeball painter, Ji Dachun, whose lasting significance is still uncertain. Art advisory firm Artvest says Chinese investors have recently started at least eight art funds, which buy artworks with the aim of reselling them at a profit later. There are only about 20 similar funds elsewhere in the world.

China's gallery scene is similarly freewheeling, with collectors such as Mr. Yang sometimes serving as stakeholders or co-owners of galleries where they also shop. Such arrangements can spark potential conflicts of interest because the stakeholders might be able to leverage their position to claim the gallery's choicest pieces. Seven years ago Mr. Yang paid to help his wife open her contemporary art gallery, Aye, but he says he doesn't manage her artists or get first dibs on any work she shows there. He recently stepped back as a financing partner in another contemporary art gallery he founded three years ago, Eastation, in order to focus on his wine venture. He continues to buy art from both galleries.

Dealers and artists say it's unclear whether Mr. Yang is trying to build a museum-worthy collection or angling for the right moment to cash out. 'China's market is still so new -- it's hard for us to tell who's a collector and who's a speculator,' says artist Zhang Xiaogang.

Mr. Yang isn't troubled by such ambiguity. 'I can't say if investing in art is good or bad,' he says, 'but I know that without money, you can't make a market grow.'

Within China's contemporary art circles, Mr. Yang is hard to miss. He's tall, with a square face and thick head of black hair. He shows acquaintances cellphone images of his art the way others pull up snapshots of their children. More often than not, he turns up at black-tie dinners dressed in a polo shirt, black corduroys, and sneakers.

In Hong Kong, he socializes with collectors like Credit Suisse banker Tony Chiu and BNP Paribas banker Daisy Cheng. Both say they've sought his advice about artists to collect. In Beijing, his penthouse apartment doubles as a lunch spot for a growing crop of young entrepreneurs and investment bankers, some of whom half-jokingly call him 'President Yang.'

Mr. Yang has rapidly built up his collection in part by maintaining a breathless pace -- he sometimes buys dozens of works at a single auction or hundreds of works from a gallery or artist he likes, he says. When he's not working in one of his six car dealerships in Beijing, he and his entourage are regulars at art fairs and auctions throughout Asia and Europe.

This year, Mr. Yang's favorite prospect is Liu Wei, a Beijing artist best known for using leathery dog chews to build a miniature city. (That 2005 work, 'Love it! Bite It!,' is owned by British advertising executive Charles Saatchi.) Two months ago, Mr. Yang flew to Hong Kong and paid boutique auctioneer Ravenel around $123,000 for Mr. Liu's 1999 canine portrait, 'Dog No. 2.' A few days later, several works by the same artist sold for twice as much at an auction back in Beijing.

Mr. Yang says the artist remains undervalued, despite investment by prominent Western collectors like Mr. Saatchi: 'Liu Wei isn't a pop star' like Zeng Fanzhi, a painter represented by New York dealer Larry Gagosian, he says, 'but I think he's as important.'

Mr. Yang has also started offloading a few older pieces by Chinese realist artists like Chen Yanning as demand for their works has climbed. Last month, Mr. Yang arrived at a Beijing luxury hotel and made his way into the packed salesroom of Poly, China's biggest auction house. He stood in the back, his usual spot. Halfway through the sale, he pointed to a large painting of a boatful of people hanging on the far wall. 'That's mine,' he said. He had paid roughly $60,000 for the 1984 work, 'New Wave,' by Chen Yanning seven years earlier, and was ready to sell. Poly priced the work to sell for at least $629,000. When the bidding began, at least five collectors took the bait and the winner paid $1 million, a new price record for the artist.

Minutes before the bidding began, Mr. Yang slipped downstairs so he could smoke while watching a live broadcast of the sale on a television in the hotel bar. After the gavel fell, he slapped the shoulder of the man beside him and laughed. Later, he heard that the winner was a 'coal boss' from Shanxi province.

At the same sale, Mr. Yang did some potentially strategic bidding of his own -- on an artist represented by his wife's Aye Gallery. Mr. Yang enlisted a taller friend to stand in front of him and bid for one of Chen Wenji's photorealistic paintings from 1990, 'A Piece of Glass Leaning on Wall.' Mr. Yang and his friend bowed out after other bidders pushed the price to more than double the work's $125,800 high estimate. It ultimately sold to a telephone bidder for $361,663, the artist's second-highest auction price.

Two days later, 'What,' a show of Mr. Chen's new works, opened at Aye. Mr. Yang says he bid on the work in part because early works by Mr. Chen are rare, and he doesn't own any, despite his wife's affiliation with the artist now. In addition, if he could help his wife's gallery by 'keeping prices in a reasonable range, this would be good for the artist,' he says.

Ms. Maggio, the Beijing dealer, says she doesn't think Mr. Yang follows any pattern intended to boost his works' values. More often, she says, he seems to bid on a whim, cajoling his friends to join in and reveling in the competition. 'He'll nudge some guy with him and say, 'Buy it! You just made a lot of money!' and they'll put up their paddles,' she says. 'It's done in a spirit of fun -- it's not calculated.'

The grandson of a Shandong farmer and the son of a Beijing factory worker, Mr. Yang grew up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, he joined one of the first waves of students allowed into the country's reopened colleges. He studied political economics.

After college, he got a job at the Ministry of Machinery, where he formed ties with foreign banks and car manufacturers so he could help the government import cars for state use. There, he met his wife, who worked as a machinery designer in an office down the block from his communal dorm; they married in 1988.

When the government began allowing individuals to start their own companies a few years later, the couple leveraged their contacts and won a contract with General Motors to sell Buicks, Chevrolets and Cadillacs in China. In 1999, they opened Shanghai's first GM dealership, Da Shi Hang Auto. In the first year alone, they sold 1,000 Buicks. Ms. Yan began organizing regional auto shows, and the couple bought a big empty house in Shanghai.

'That's when we realized we needed something for the walls,' says Mr. Yang, who sold around 11,000 cars last year through his seven showrooms in Shanghai and Beijing. He drives a black Cadillac Escalade.

In 2000, he paid a local gallery around $120,000 to fill their home with suitable paintings, but over time he grew curious about the artists themselves. A year or two later, he spotted a roughly $84,000 painting of a starkly lit human figure by contemporary artist Shi Chong, and something clicked: He wanted to own artworks that felt new. By 2004, he and Ms. Yan had moved back to Beijing and his compulsion had reached a point where he decided to sell his newer Toyota franchise so he could use the cash to buy art. Within weeks of closing that deal, he had spent the entire $3.6 million in profits buying art. 'When we see something we like, we can't help ourselves,' said Ms. Yan.

Last month in Beijing, Mr. Yang threw a wine-tasting dinner for more than 100 guests at his friend Mr. Rui's new hotel. Artworks were tucked into niches throughout the hotel's white lobby -- including an Anne-Julie video of a horse walking on a treadmill -- and the upper hallways were dotted with showstoppers like the Yangjiang Group's drippy candle wax tree. Young men and women clustered around the restaurant's tables, dining on lamb chops and vigorously swirling glasses of Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot.

Mr. Yang's latest pastime is fine wine. He tried it for the first time shortly after he opened his first car dealership, and he now drinks a glass or two every day. He keeps his best 2,000 bottles, including Bordeaux from Chateau Latour, in Hong Kong so that he can drink it during business trips there and avoid paying taxes to import it home. Last year, he imported 20,000 bottles of less-expensive vintages so he could try selling them to mainland friends. So far, his wine sales have topped $3 million, which he says he uses to pay his personal wine-drinking bills.

In May, Mr. Yang and Ms. Yan moved into a new apartment, an 18th-floor penthouse in a Beijing neighborhood known as the Embassy District. Throughout their home, artworks are arranged to mix East with West. In the dining room, American artist Roxy Paine's linen canvas drips with white paint near a life-size sculpture of an obese Asian man belly-flopping onto a waist-high block of faux ice. Embedded in the man's back are a group of upturned Champagne flutes, one of which accidentally snapped off during a recent party there. The work's sculptor, Mu Boyan, sent over a replacement flute straight away. He shows at Ms. Yan's gallery.

In a strange twist, the Beijing gallery district where Mr. Yang regularly trolls for fresh finds is located in the former munitions compound where his father worked decades before. The area still goes by its government nickname, the 798. 'My father spent his whole life there,' he says. 'Now, I spend my money there.'

Kelly Crow