The owner of China’s largest private museum, Cai Zhenqiang, has disappeared amid claims of unpaid rent and massive debt. Cai was both Long Sheng Museum’s owner and curator and allegedly owes a staggering RMB12 million in unsettled rent, according to China.org.cn.
Reports emerged via the Shenzhen Evening Post on Tuesday that the museum, notable for its purchase of valuable overseas Chinese antiques, had been shuttered for months and that Cai has been embroiled in a string of debts and lawsuits since last year.
On July 11, a Shenzhen court ruled that Cai’s Shenzhen Cang Shi Zhai Culture and Arts Investment Inc. must be closed and that his museum needed to be relocated due to his mountain of rental debt.
Long Sheng Museum, located in Nanshan District, received the government’s national qualification certificate in 2015 and once covered 6,600 square meters and five exhibition galleries. More than half of the 300 exhibits in the museum were retrieved from abroad, including a statue pillaged by Anglo-French forces when they raided the Old Summer Place in 1860.
Jade, bronze stuffs, porcelain, oil paintings and calligraphies were also featured throughout the museum.
In 2013, Cai founded an online lending program to offer art-related financial services, a project that now owes more than RMB100 million in debt. According to china.org.ca, public records show that Cai is facing 25 lawsuits in Shenzhen – most connected to debt.
Cai’s whereabouts are presently unknown and police in Nanshan told us a case has not been opened in relation to his disappearance.
[Image via china.org.cn]
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