US billionaire brings Dutch painters to China's masses

Beijing

STANDING in a dimly-lit gallery space in China's National Museum, the owner of the world's only privately-held Vermeer gazed at the small oil painting for a long moment, before showing it to the assembled press.

Since American billionaire Tom Kaplan purchased the piece in 2008, it has spent most of its time on loan to various museums around the world. When the investor - who made his fortune betting on precious metals and natural gas - and his wife began buying up works by 17th century Dutch painters in 2003, their goal was to take "paintings from the private domain and return them to the public", he said. Now the collection is set to find its biggest audience yet when a selection of around 70 of its more than 250 works goes on show from Saturday through Sept 3 just steps from the mausoleum of Communist China's founder Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Square.