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American art museums follow the money trail to Asia

American art museums follow the money trail to Asia


The makeup of trustees on the boards of many high-profile American museums is changing as they search the globe for patrons with deeps pockets. The addition of Russian and Latin American billionaires like Leohnid Mikhelson, Vladmir Potanin (or their associates like Roman Abramovich's partner Dasha Zhukova), Alejando Santo Domingo, Eugenio Lopez is a fairly commonplace, but these days the money trail is also leading them to Asia with New York's Asia Society leading the way. Twelve of the Society's forty-five trustees are non-American, hailing from China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and in 2011 it named Hong Kong property billionaire Ronnie Chan as co-chair of the board, which also includes Indian billionaire Jamshyd N Godrej.

Image: Ronnie Chan