Christine Chu spends a lot of time in Europe, hunting around back-street antique shops and art galleries. Fourteen years ago she bought a still life by a lesser-known Dutch painter Willem Van Leen for $500,000. Recently it was appraised at $10 million.
The experience bolstered her confidence and fostered a belief it is possible to make good money out of art. Fast forward about two decades and Ms Chu is putting her eye for good painting to the test in a different way.
The Christine Gallery on Wyndham Street, which opened last week, will specialise in European painters - whom the local gallery scene has tended to bypass in favour of established and rising Asian names.
The venture sounds risky, especially amid the sidewalk culture of Soho that is already crowded with galleries, but Ms Chu thinks she has a ready target market with the cash to spend.
'I am thinking particularly of newly wealthy mainland people who have acquired luxury homes and want to furnish them appropriately,' Ms Chu says.
Whether the mainland's nouveau riche take to classic European oil painting remains to be seen, but Ms Chu is making it relatively easy for those who wish to dabble. Prices for most works range between $50,000 and $100,000, with selected works by famous artists fetching more. Life paintings by Willem van Leen and portraits by Francois Boucher sell in the six-figure range.