Shanghai billionaire Liu Yiqian splurged nearly HK$114 million on a Song-dynasty vase at a Hong Kong auction yesterday. Liu's latest acquisition adds to a striking Chinese art collection that includes a Tibetan tapestry he bought for a record HK$348.4 million last year. The taxi driver turned financier is worth US$1.37 billion according to Forbes magazine estimates, and has been one of the most recognisable faces at art auctions in recent years. At the Sotheby's spring auctions in Wan Chai, Liu beat seven other bidders to buy the Guan vase, of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), from a Japanese-owned collection. His HK$113.9 million offer exceeded the pre-sale estimate of HK$60 million by 90 per cent. Sotheby's said it was the third-highest price paid for Song ceramics at auction. The current record holder is a Ru Guanyao brush washer from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). It was sold by Sotheby's - also in Hong Kong - in 2012 for nearly HK$208 million. The city has witnessed at least two other jaw-dropping auction purchases by Liu, one of China's biggest collectors of art. He bought the Meiyintang Chenghua "chicken cup" last April for a record HK$281 million, followed by a 600-year-old embroidered silk thangka for more than HK$348 million in November. Last month, he paid HK$108 million for a 600-year-old album of Ming-dynasty (1368-1644) Buddhist art and calligraphy at auction in New York. Liu is chairman of the Sunline Group in Shanghai. He founded the Long Museum in Pudong with his wife, Wang Wei, also a well-known figure in art circles. Liu was photographed last year drinking tea from the multimillion-dollar chicken cup. He said he hoped to preserve the cup and the thangka at his museum. Also yesterday, Sotheby's sealed the deal for 5,800 Swatch watches put out by Luxembourg-based Paul Dunkel, who had the world's largest private Swatch collection, at HK$46.7 million to a European institution.