We have good but many express nothing deep

Bonko Chan is a man of many faces, a phenomenon. There are those that speak you of him as the King of the cargo in China. His business card indicates that he is Vice-Chairman of China Assets, an investment company, specialized in the field of logistics. There is also his first career: he was fighter pilot in the Chinese army until 1992. There are also pages and the Web pages that speak in all the languages of his patronage in Western Opera. The "Time Asia" the CITES as the patron of reference of the Shanghai Opera House, which brought in his city great lyrical references to Europe and the United States. And, finally, there is the Bonko Chan amateur of Western modern art. Here, the man doesn't mince his words. "I am certainly the only serious collector of modern art in China."

Bonko Chan doesn't yet have the appearance of a man who seeks to demonstrate anything. Luxurious Office or big shows in gold, or extravagant clothing. It is self-taught on culture with a ferocious appetite for discoveries and intelligence to the lookout. His English vocabulary is very accurate and he speaks without raising the tone but already truths in a direct manner.

It is in the 1990s he began to take an interest in Opera and co-produce shows. Very quickly, it issues arise on scenic settings and how to be more inventive. Of course, the pictorial production is a source of endless inspiration. And the interest for the purchase, there is that a step... which is crossed when Bonko Chan acquired his first painting, a work of socialist realism. "It is stupid." I thought it was beautiful. It seemed like a photograph. Indeed, until 1996, I have to admit that what interested me was the names of the artists. I was looking for famous signatures. Then I met with the history of art. I must be honest. I was not born with a gift that allows me to appreciate the art course. I have much work to do. I read a lot. I visited many museums.

Bonko Chan is a man who likes to learn in new areas. Yesterday, it was modern art. Today, three to four hours per day of his already full time employment are devoted to the study of theology. "I'm looking to enlighten me," he summarizes to evoke its continuous thirst for knowledge.

Therefore, the principle was applied in the field of the tables. "I have for example Giorgio de Chirico horses." But they are not the proper period, the metaphysical period. My tastes have become progressively more sophisticated. "It started with those he calls"good figurative painters"such as Corot. "I didn't have a link hard with that expressed the artist but I loved the atmosphere, the lightness of the atmosphere that emanates from the table." He attended the galleries during his trips, receives sales catalogues, travelled to Basel fair and buy works like a biblical scene of Georges Rouault or "The war of Babylon", a composition of the 1950s of Dali.

Bonko Chan began to forge a clean taste expressed in a painting of a rather expressionist nature of all times and all countries. He is interested for example in the production of the Austrian of the beginning of the 20th century, Oskar Kokoschka, which has a landscape of London bought at auction. "I can feel what he felt by painting this scene." It seems to me even to hear the noise of the street. It locates well his point of view. It is placed on a roof at St. Paul's Cathedral. "It also refers a famous American contemporary painter but who is not a success critically, Ronald Kitaj. "I do I not chosen it for investment reasons." His painting student me very spiritual way. The colors are vivid. I placed the table in my room.

It also has a portrait of Picasso in 1964 representing his last companion, Jacqueline. "I bought it at a German banker friend." "My Picasso gives me the feeling of being rich," he said, smiling and showing the photo he has placed in wallpaper on his cell phone.

But now, it looks at the market of international art with some caution. "Today, the prices are too high and I believe that this will continue." It takes a catalogue of Christie's opened at random and exclaims: "this is crazy! The amounts claimed are extravagant. "His eye is even more distanced in Chinese contemporary art. Of course, in this area, I started very quickly to buy." I must confess that I bought in this case rather to invest. I know very well this market. Some artists will obviously survive all these excesses. We have good but many express nothing deep.

It is one of the few in China to be able to assess jointly and without difficulty Western art and Chinese art. "Nothing is really exotic to me, you know." The crucial question is the beautiful painting with which might establish a personal communication. "And he concluded:"the business are quite boring and complicated occupation." When you're in the middle of a transaction that appears to be blocked, look at a table provides a breath of air, freedom and, indirectly, have ideas. Art gives me some inspiration.