Chinese tycoon Liu snaps up ancient vase for $15 million

Chinese tycoon Liu snaps up ancient vase for $15 million

Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian splashed out nearly HK$114 million ($14.71 million) on an ancient vase at auction in Hong Kong Tuesday -- his latest expensive purchase of a rare artefact originally from the mainland. The simple octagonal piece, an 800-year-old Southern Song Dynasty work tinted a milky blue, broke the guide price of $7.7 million at the sale by Sotheby's. Taxi-driver-turned-financier Liu -- chairman of investment company Sunline Group -- is one of China's wealthiest men and among the country's new class of super-rich scouring the globe for artworks. The 51 year-old broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in April last year when he bought a Ming Dynasty wine cup -- known as the "chicken cup" -- for $36 million, which he subsequently famously drank tea from.