A private investor and avid artwork collector based in the eastern China province of Jiangsu has spent US$18 million to build the country's largest private art gallery.

The Yilanzhai Art Gallery, wholly owned by Yilanzhai Artwork Co., covers 96,700 square meters in the provincial capital Nanjing, a "laudable move" to be taken by a private company, as Xu Huping, curator of the Nanjing Museum, puts it.

Xu said it was the first time for a private investor to build an art gallery of its size. "The new gallery under construction will be twice as big as the provincial art gallery. It'll promote cultural development in the province," he added.

Yilanzhai Artwork Co., whose name means "house of artwork and orchids" in Chinese, is a professional collector of ancient paintings and calligraphic works. It has collected nearly 3,000 authentic works from the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties over the past two decades, more than 20 of which have been listed by the Chinese government as national gems.

The company will put its collections on display at the new gallery, which will have exhibition halls, collection centers, conference rooms and workshops dedicated to keeping ancient artwork intact upon its completion next year, say sources with Yilanzhai Artwork Co.

The gallery is the 27th art gallery designed by noted Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, whose other works included the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the National Art Center in Tokyo and many other architectures in the world.

The same investor will also build a cultural community in Hexi New District, where the new art gallery is located, featuring bookstores, art promotion centers, artists' studios and theaters.

Observers say China's private entrepreneurs started to invest in art galleries in the 1990s, but most of these earlier establishments were too small to be compared with Yilanzhai.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2004)