He is the man who bought Yue Minjun’s painting, the princess “Infanta,” for $2 million at Sotheby's auction in London in 2007. He is also the man who started building a New Contemporary Art Center with an exhibition space of 2,000 square meters at Song Village in Beijing in 2008. And he is the one who will hold a huge exhibition of Chinese art in Jakarta in 2009. Yu Deyao, a 51-year-old Indonesian-Chinese collector who may now be called one of the most important collectors of Chinese contemporary art.
Now, in his spacious living room, Yu, a multi -- millionaire in Indonesian business circles, is warmly preparing coffee for a journalist. He is introducing a visitor to the Indonesian wood carving art works that hang on the walls. He is gentle, talkative and full of life and wit.