Top Chinese art contemporary collector Guy Ullens to hand over UCCA museum, sell works

One of the world’s leading collectors of Chinese art, Belgian billionaire Guy Ullens, is to give up his eponymous Beijing museum – among the capital’s top art centres – and sell his private collection, the organisation said.

Ullens, a baron, is a foodstuffs magnate and long-standing Chinese art collector whose companies have included Weight Watchers.

His father and uncle were both diplomats at Belgium’s embassy in the country, and he is a friend of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

His non-profit Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a mainstay of Beijing’s trendy 798 art district, exhibits both Chinese and international artists and has had more than four million visitors since it was founded in 2007, according to its website.

In a joint statement by the museum and the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Ullens said he would hand over the UCCA to a new benefactor and sell off his own vast collection through private sales and auctions later this year.