The billionaire Chinese businessman and art collector Liu Yiqian this week exchanged 281.2 million Hong Kong Dollars (US$36 million) for a 500-year old Ming dynasty wine cup. The cup, painted with chickens, cockerels and chicks, is from the Chenghua period (1465 to 1487), and is one of only 16 “chicken cups” in the world. Its sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong is that of one of the most expensive Chinese cultural relics ever at auction.

Liu Yiqian has just opened the second branch of the Long Museum in Shanghai, built to house and exhibit his expansive collection of antique and contemporary Chinese art and artifacts; he told the Wall Street Journal “Why do you all care so much about the price [of the cup]? I bought it only because I like it.”

Sources:
Business Insider
The Globe and Mail (Reuters)