The Chinese are coming!
November 19 2015
Picture: sytimescapes.org.uk
Last week it was reported that a 'Hong Kong based' investment group has agreed to buy Britain's longest house, the Grade 1 listed Wentworth Wodehouse, above, ofr in excess of £8m. The same week we learnt that another Hong Kong property mogul, Lu Yiqian, bought a Modigliani at Christie's for $170m. Some are nervous that art and heritage assets are being bought by the Chinese.
But we shouldn't be. Anyone who forks out either £8m for a house, or $170m for a painting is likely to look after it. To suggest they're not just because they're Chinese is daft. I think it's good that the Chinese, rich or not, are taking a wider interest in western heritage.
The Modigliani will soon be heading to China. And we can expect more things to head east, for Mr Liu says (in the New York Times):
“The message to the West is clear: We have bought their buildings, we have bought their companies, and now we are going to buy their art.”
This is little different from the likes of Carnegie and Huntington buying Western art in the early 20th Century, and shipping that to the US (in the days before export controls too). In many cases they even moved entire buildings. But I think we can be sure that Wentworth Wodehouse isn't going anywhere.
That said, the sale of Wentworth to a private buyer produced a succession of anxious letters in The Times that somehow this was a heritage 'disaster', that the house should have been 'saved' by being bought by a charity or some other public sector body.
But there is little evidence to show that such houses are better off outside private ownership. In my experience, the best 'stately homes' to visit are those that are still owned or lived in by private owners. They tend to take better care of things, and present the collections more meaningfully (even if, sometimes, with a degree of eccentricity). You won't find them replacing original furnishings with beanbags at Chatsworth.
Incidentally, it is becoming something of a scandal that the National Trust still has not revealed what caused the fire at Clandon Park.
Update - apparently Mr Liu is paying for his Modigliani on American Express. This will get him enough airmiles to fly first class return between London and New York 733 times. Sensible fellow.
Update II - a reader writes:
As you say, no known cause revealed and so far as I know, no published list of losses.
Update II - the Wentworth sale has fallen through. Apparently, Lake House Group were worried about the subsidence. Since this was widely known about for years, one wonders if they were ever that serious about buying.
