Museum aims to serve the public

"They are about our age and deal with our contemporary issues," he says. "It has infinite subjects and expressions that break all boundaries. That is very exciting to me."

His interest in art collection started about 10 years ago and in the past decade he has built a systematic collection of contemporary Chinese art, as well as some works by important foreign artists.

"I have to be careful now that people keep their eyes on me and what I buy," he says. Art + Auction ranked him among the top 10 most powerful figures in the art world in 2011, and Art Review ranked him 76th in the 2012 Power 100.

"I have to discipline myself and learn to pick good works. I cherish my reputation more than anything else," Tek says.

A third-generation Chinese emigrant in Indonesia, Tek says: "We are eager to make unconditional contributions to the homeland."

His ambition is to build the museum "to the same level as large private museums in the world, especially in terms of the operation system of the museum-such as MoMA and Guggenheim".

"In the future when I am gone, the museum may become a public facility-not owned by the government, but collectively run by a group of individuals," he says.

"What I want is to leave a good reputation for my children. I want them to be cultural elites and spiritual nobles, respected by people. I am Chinese, too."

Attending the celebration on Jan 8 was Zhang Peili, a new media artist and director of the OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, a museum under the OCT Group, a State-owned enterprise of tourism and real estate industries.

Compared to those run by enterprises, such as Minsheng Art Museum and Himalayas Museum, private museums of individual ownership are in particularly good prospect, he believes.

"These private establishments don't have to go through the complicated corporate system to build their collections," Zhang says. "The museum will develop rapidly if the owner has broad vision and is very committed to art."