YIP SHING-YIU is serious about two things. The first is his work, which he refuses to give up even after 40 years and two heart bypass operations. The second is Ming-dynasty furniture - a passion, the dapper 69-year-old dermatologist is proud to admit, that may put him in the record books. Yip's collection of Ming furniture is considered the largest owned by one person in the world. He has more than 150 pieces which he has acquired in less than 10 years.
'I can't help it. I am one of those collectors who just buys like crazy,' he says. 'If it's a good piece and I have the money, I will buy it. I don't even think where I am going to put it.' Yip describes himself as the quickest 'gunslinger' in the East, his 'gun' being his wallet. When he sees an item he likes, he writes a cheque without hesitation.
'Once I started collecting I couldn't stop,' Yip says. 'At one point I had stacked more than 100 pieces of furniture in my house and smaller pieces under the bed and wherever I had space.'
His collection is now dispersed around the world. He has loaned a dozen or so pieces to a museum in Berlin, another dozen to Government House where they adorn the meeting rooms in which Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa receives dignitaries, and most of the remainder sit in a huge warehouse in Chai Wan, which Yip occasionally visits. 'Furniture is very different from jade or ceramics. You can't keep everything close to you because it is so bulky,' he says. 'I don't have to look at my pieces all the time. Just knowing I have them is good enough.'
This autumn, however, Yip will undertake a major housekeeping exercise. He is putting about half his collection - 68 pieces - up for auction. The sale, to be executed by Christie's in New York, will be one of the most significant auctions of classical Chinese furniture in recent years. And with an estimated US$3 million to US$4 million (HK$23.4 million to HK$31.2 million) to be realised, it's an investment that's paying good dividends.
Yip says he is selling because his collection is becoming too big to manage, but the handsome profit he stands to make is also enticing.
