Liu Yiqian was born into an ordinary working class family in Shanghai and from a young age proved himself a savvy investor
From the younger generation of super-rich, Liu Yiqian, is China’s biggest art collector.
Chinese media have dubbed him “the eccentric Mr Liu” because he wears T-shirts to work and shaves only occasionally, but his investment style suggests he is highly savvy.
As my crew fussed around his office preparing for the interview, Liu appeared unfazed, intently studying a huge screen of stock prices, a cigarette in one hand, and a mug of tea by his side.
Born in 1963 into an ordinary working class family in Shanghai, Liu left school at 14 to help his mother with her handbag business.
Initially, he made the bags which she sold from a stand on the street. But Liu worked out a way of making the bags cheaper than the other street vendors. By undercutting them he outsold them.
It was the beginning of the 1980s, and the earliest roots of China’s move to capitalism were being put in place. Small but significant fortunes were being made.
At the time there was a phrase in Shanghai: “becoming a 10,000 yuan person.” The average wage was 300 yuan per year at that time and the people earning 10,000 in Shanghai were all street traders like Liu.
He became a 10,000 yuan person aged 17. But although his fortune was on the rise, he and his family were still living hand to mouth.
Liu’s big break came when he was 27, and his on-the-job schooling finally proved useful. He was visiting the Shenzhen economic zone to buy materials for bags when he met a former classmate, who told him about a new thing called stock trading.
He bought his first holding in a company that operated very near his bag stall, so he knew all about them.
The shares cost 100 yuan and within a year their value increased to 10,000 yuan. He eventually sold his stake for more than two million yuan.
His wealth is based on that one transaction. Liu invested the profit in companies across a wide range of industries, all of which grew sharply. His holdings still are very diversified.
Liu’s art collecting is done in conjunction with his wife, Wang Wei. She acts as curator and concentrates on Chinese art.
Liu Yiqian and wife Wang Wei plan to display their collection at a purpose-built museum in Shanghai
When 60 of their Chinese paintings and calligraphy works dating back to the Song dynasty were shown at Beijing’s Poly Art Museum in December 2010, they were insured for a reported ten billion yuan (£0.94bn; $1.5bn).
Highlights of the collection included two Song Dynasty (960-1279) pieces and another five from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
There was an ancient brush painting featuring rare birds, believed to be the only existing hand-drawn painting by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty.
During the Cultural Revolution many ancient Chinese artworks were destroyed, making the remaining ones exceedingly rare and valuable.
In October 2010, Mr Liu paid about $11m for a Qing Dynasty imperial throne with carved dragons at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
Liu and his wife plan to build their own museum in Shanghai, a massive venue to display their complete collection.
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British military effort in Libya will continue for ‘as long as required’, according to the Defence Secretary Liam Fox, as opposition forces call for Nato to step up its campaign.
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Cardiff City meet Alan Shearer about their vacant managerial position, BBC Sport Wales understands.
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HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland will all have to restructure their businesses
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Chancellor George Osborne is to force banks to ring-fence their retail operations from investment banking.
In a speech on Wednesday he will say banks must be set up so that their branches and public savings and loans would not be damaged if their trading arms ran into trouble.
The legal separation of the functions of big banks was recommended by the Independent Commission on Banking.
He will also announce the privatisation of Northern Rock.
The former mutual was nationalised in 2008, in the early stages of the financial crisis.
Mr Osborne will also say that banks will have to hold more capital to protect themselves against future losses than the new international minimum of 7%.
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Fighting poverty in India is still an immediate priority, MPs say
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The UK must “fundamentally” change its aid relationship with India after 2015 by giving less to the increasingly prosperous country, MPs say.
The international development committee backed the government’s decision to continue providing £280m a year in the short term to combat poverty.
But it called for a redirection of money towards priorities such as improving hygiene and education.
The government said this “endorsed” its own approach to aid for India.
The UK continuing to help India while the south Asian nation’s own government spends large sums on projects such as a space programme has attracted criticism.
The coalition has promised to spend 0.7% of gross national income on overseas aid and India is the biggest single recipient of that aid.
In its report the committee agreed with ministers that the existence of “large pockets of poverty” within the country justified the maintenance of UK aid for the immediate future.
But it expressed concerns at a lack of experience within the Department for International Development (DfID) in dealing with the private sector, through which half the money is expected to be invested.
They demanded “greater clarity” on which projects would be the most effective.
Analysis
Thousands of lives in one of India’s poorest regions have been transformed by British aid.
Nuapada in Western Orissa was often hit by drought, and hunger was a regular part of life.
But British experts revived the arid landscape, digging wells and irrigation ditches.
Now farmers can grow four crops a year. Reservoirs are full of water and fish.
The project has been so successful that the Indian government is replicating it over a vast area.
But should the UK be helping India at all?
While Britain is cutting back, India is expanding its social services. It has a space programme, nuclear submarines and even recently offered $5bn of its own aid to Africa.
India now has more billionaires than the UK, and it clearly no longer lacks money. The challenge is making sure that everyone benefits.
Britain’s Department for International Development and other aid agencies think they still have a role to play while so many Indians remain mired in poverty.
DfID also needed to be “more rigorous” in choosing initiatives to support and give more attention to improving sanitation and reducing social exclusion, the committee said.
Its report said: “We support the UK’s continued development assistance to India for the period up to 2015.
“However after this the development relationship must change fundamentally to one based on mutual learning and technical assistance where requested.”
The committee’s chairman, Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce, said: “The test of whether the UK should continue to give aid to India is whether that aid makes a distinct, value-added contribution to poverty reduction which would not otherwise happen. We believe most UK aid does this.
“The Indian government has primary responsibility for poverty reduction. It has put up taxes and increased its social spending, but the poverty there is on such an extreme scale that it will take many years for India to achieve internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.”
However, Oxfam criticised the setting of arbitrary deadlines for the potential end of financial aid.
Senior policy adviser Max Lawson said: “This report clearly shows that UK aid plays an important role in tackling poverty in India, a country with more poor people than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
“MPs are right to say that we should keep our aid under review. But future aid to India should be determined by the needs of poor people there and the ability of their government to help them, not by any arbitrary deadline.”
A DfID spokesman said: “We’re glad that this report by the cross-party International Development Committee endorses our approach to delivering aid in India.”
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Meanwhile, Crystal Harris’s debut single Club Queen was released on iTunes on Tuesday
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The wedding of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to his 25-year-old girlfriend has been called off, following her change of heart, Mr Hefner announced.
Mr Hefner was to marry Crystal Harris, who was featured in the magazine as Playmate of the Month in December 2009, on Saturday.
The 85-year-old has been married twice before, in 1949 and 1989.
On her website, Ms Harris wrote that she had taken the decision “after much deep reflection and thought”.
“I have decided to end my engagement with Hef,” she wrote.
“I have the utmost respect for Hef and wish him the best going forward. I hope the media will give each of us the privacy we deserve during this time.”
On his Twitter feed, Mr Hefner wrote: “The wedding is off. Crystal has had a change of heart.”
The pair were to be wed this Saturday, 18 June, with a video of the ceremony to be broadcast next month.
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Zac Goldsmith said there had been “no great revelation” in any of the e-mails
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Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has insisted he was right to take out a super-injunction after private e-mails were hacked and passed to newspapers.
He told the BBC the legal fees had cost an “absolute fortune” and called for reform to make it possible for the less wealthy to protect their privacy.
But he accepted Parliament was unlikely to act, as most MPs feared the consequences of taking on the press.
Mr Goldsmith was granted the super-injunction in 2008.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM, he explained the circumstances under which he, his then wife Sheherazade and his sister Jemima Khan had obtained the order, which was downgraded to a standard injunction earlier this year, allowing its existence to be made public.
Mr Goldsmith, who represents Richmond Park, in south-west London, said his case was “probably the best example of why a super-injunction has merit”.
He said: “I discovered late at night that hundreds of e-mails had been accessed illegally from my wife’s – my now ex-wife’s – e-mail account and also from my sister’s e-mail account.
“I had no idea which e-mails had been accessed. I simply know that they had been sent to editors of newspapers around the country, purporting to come from me and/or my ex-wife, which was not the case.
“We didn’t know who had done this or why it was being done and I sought very quickly to close down any possibility that these e-mails would be published, because they were clearly illegally accessed.
“There was no great revelation in any of them; they were simply private e-mails and discussions and exchanges between members of a family.”
He added: “Initially we sought and obtained a super-injunction, which prevented any discussion of this in the coming weeks and months.
“When we eventually discovered who it was that had hacked the e-mails – someone we understood, and we still believe, suffers from quite serious mental health issues – we applied to have part of the super-injunction lifted – the part applying to myself and my sister, which is why we can talk about it now, but not the part applying to the hacker.”
Mr Goldsmith, who has been an MP since last year, said revealing the contents of the e-mails would have been “very uncomfortable” at a time when he was seeking election to Parliament, because of the revelation of “all kinds of tittle-tattle which I would have been better off without”.
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Mr Baird said “it goes without saying” many nations think Col Gaddafi should step down
Canada has recognised a coalition of Libyan rebels as the “legitimate representative” of the Libyan people.
In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird pledged to hold talks with the National Transition Council (NTC).
Canada also promised 2m Canadian dollars ($2m; £1.3m) in humanitarian aid to the country, including to prevent sexual violence against women.
The NTC emerged from the forces that launched a revolt against Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in February.
“Our government will engage with the institutions and representatives of the NTC,” Mr Baird said, Canadian Press reported.
“We will identify members of the NTC responsible for domestic issues and propose meetings with their Canadian counterparts. We will also happily arrange meetings between NTC members and honourable members of [parliament].”
With the move Canada joins about a dozen nations, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain and the UK, that have recognised the rebel group as the “legitimate representative” of the Libyan people.
However, Ottawa stopped short of recognising the group as Libya’s government.
Meanwhile, the Canadian parliament is debating whether to extend the country’s participation in the Nato-led no-fly zone over Libya.
In parliament on Tuesday, Mr Baird said Canada’s goal in Libya was to “to protect civilians”, but he added “it goes without saying that at the political level… most actors believe Col Gaddafi must go.”
Of the aid package, 1.75m Canadian dollars will go to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, CBC News reported.
The remainder will be pledged to the United Nations Population Fund to protect women and girls from gender-based and sexual violence.
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Ben and Catherine Mullany were on the last day of their Caribbean honeymoon when they were shot
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A honeymoon couple murdered in Antigua both died from gunshot wounds to the head, a trial on the island has heard.
Catherine and Ben Mullany, both 31, from Pontardawe, Swansea, were attacked in the Caribbean in July 2008.
Doctor Derek James, senior forensic pathology lecturer at Cardiff University, gave evidence that both were shot in the back of their heads.
Avie Howell, 20, and Kaniel Martin, 23, deny the murders, and the murder of a local shopkeeper. The trial continues.
The couple were on the last day of their honeymoon when they were shot.
Mrs Mullany, a doctor, died at the scene while her husband, who was a physiotherapy student, was flown back to Britain for treatment but was pronounced dead a week later at Morriston Hospital in Swansea.
The court heard Dr James conducted post mortem examinations on the couple on 5 August, 2008.
A security guard who was on duty at the Cocos Hotel and Resort has previously told the trial it is possible he may have napped on shift on the night the Mullanys were killed.
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The sitter in winning portrait Distracted has been painted at different points in his life
An artist who has painted his sitter for nearly 20 years has won the National Portrait Gallery’s art prize.
Wim Heldens, 57, won the £25,000 BP Portrait Award with Distracted, which shows sitter Jeroen at the age of 25.
The winner of the annual prize first painted Jeroen when he was seven and has pictured him on 17 occasions.
Louis Smith, 41, won second prize for his portrait of a near-naked model and Ian Cumberland, 28, took third prize for his portrait of a friend.
The young artist award went to 28-year-old Sertan Saltan, who lives in New York, for her image of a woman in hair rollers and latex gloves glancing “menacingly” at the artist while sharpening a large knife.
The winning artist, who is from Amsterdam, said of the sitter: “I have been fascinated with painting Jeroen in all stages of life through growing up. Now he is an intelligent and sensitive young man.”
National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne said Heldens had offered “a quiet but evocative study”.
“It is an outstanding work in the midst of a truly diverse field of new portraits,” he said.
Climate activists targeted the award ceremony in protest against sponsorship from oil company BP.
Protesters claimed BP was using the arts in a bid to divert attention away from its impact on the environment.
A spokesman for the National Portrait Gallery said sponsorship by the oil company “directly encourages the work of artists and helps gain wider recognition for them”.
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Steinberg used diaries and letters to help put together his Bismarck biography
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A biography about the artist Caravaggio and the story how Bismarck created modern Germany are shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson non-fiction prize.
Art critic Andrew Graham Dixon’s Caravaggio and Jonathan Steinberg’s Bismarck: A Life will compete with four other non-fiction books for the award.
The winner, who will win £20,000, will be announced in London on 6 July.
Frank Dikotter’s Mao’s Great Famine, about the China’s disastrous Great Leap Forward policy, is also in the running.
The other works on the list include Liberty’s Exiles: The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire, by Maya Jasanoff, examines what happened to the 60,000 American loyalists who left the US following independence.
Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves and Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War by John Stubbs, complete the shortlist.
Times journalist Ben Macintyre, chairman of the judges, said: “Even before we begin our final deliberations, while one of these great books certainly deserves to win, five do not deserve to lose.”
Previous winners include The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh and 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro.
The prize is now in its 13th year.
Non-fiction books must be published in English by writers of any nationality between 1 May 2010 and 30 April 2011 to be eligible for this year’s award.
A special edition of BBC Two’s the Culture Show will feature coverage of this year’s shortlisted books.
The programme will be broadcast on 7 July at 1900 BST.
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Smoke from the fire can be seen across London
About 75 firefighters are tackling a blaze in the roof of a building in central London.
The London Fire Brigade was called to a 10-storey hotel and flats under refurbishment, in the Aldwych area at about 1100 BST.
A number of roads have been closed in the area as 15 fire engines attend the blaze.
London Ambulance said it was on standby at the scene but it had not treated anyone.
People have taken pictures of the fire
The fire has sent smoke across the London skyline.
The A4 in Aldwych was closed due to the fire, while southbound traffic on Kingsway from High Holborn was blocked.
All traffic from Waterloo Bridge is being diverted down the Strand to Trafalgar Square.
London Underground is accepting bus tickets within Zone 1, with bus routes 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 26, 76, 87 and 139 being affected.
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Professor Steve Field GP, who led the forum: ‘Competition isn’t the be all and end all’
Ministers will seek to reinvigorate plans to change the NHS in England after an independent review recommended a major rewrite of the proposals.
The government is to promise to slow the process of giving more purchasing powers to GPs, as it attempts to heal divisions between Tories and Lib Dems.
It is hoped this will allow the changes to pass into law before Parliament adjourns for the summer recess.
Ministers hope a quick response will allow them to restart stalled changes.
The proposals for the NHS have become an increasing source of tension between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats
Many Lib Dems have complained that handing GPs control of much of the NHS budget and opening up services to greater competition could lead to effective privatisation of services.
At the party’s spring conference, members voted to amend what they called a “damaging and unjustified” programme of change.
But many Tories say reform is needed to provide better value for money and improve services.
In April – amid fears of a rebellion by Lib Dem MPs and peers, and following criticism from academics and health unions – the government took the unprecedented step of halting the parliamentary progress of the Health and Social Care Bill.
A panel of experts, called the NHS Future Forum, was set up to review the policy.
Its report, published on Monday, recommended a wide range of changes. The BBC understands many of those will now be accepted, including:
The legal responsibility of the health secretary for the NHS to be reinstatedThe 2013 deadline for the new arrangements to be relaxed. Commissioning groups will have to be established, but those not ready will not have to take on responsibility for the budget. Instead, the national board in London will take charge in those circumstancesThe power of health and well-being boards, which are being set up by councils, to be beefed up. Patients also given a greater role on them to ensure the patient voice is heardGPs still taking the lead in making decisions through the commissioning groups, but other professionals such as hospital doctors and nurses to be consulted more
Ministers had originally wanted to hand GPs control of much of the NHS budget, while opening up the health service to greater competition.
However, it is not yet clear what the government will do about the recommendations the forum made about this.
It suggested that, while GPs should remain in control, they should consult other professionals.
Analysis
Accepting the recommendations in full would not represent a major climbdown for the government.
Even on the most controversial element – competition – the NHS Future Forum was clear. It has an important role to play.
Instead, many of the proposals are about moderating language.
The term economic regulator should be dropped because it makes the NHS sound like a utility industry not because it is fundamentally wrong, according to the forum.
There are extra safeguards being proposed as well to ensure the policy does not lead to unintended consequences.
But the general direction of travel remains the same. That is to say, doctors are to be given more of a say in decision-making and the private sector is to get greater involvement.
That does not mean that this review – and any government response to it on Tuesday – represents simple tinkering.
As the review team made clear there were “genuine and deep-seated” concerns.
Greater clarity was needed and in giving this, as one member of the review team has been saying, some of the rough edges will hopefully be smoothed away.
The BBC understands the government will not be explicit on whether all GP groups will be compelled to take on control of budgets and planning.
The Department of Health says the aim and expectation is that all groups will take the powers on eventually – but at this stage it is not planning explicitly to compel them to do so.
Department of Health sources admit that leaves the Lib Dems free to suggest that GPs could ultimately refuse to take on control of budgets and planning.
Senior Lib Dem sources have suggested to the BBC that GP commissioning will therefore still be voluntary.
The review also proposed a greater balance between competition and co-operation among NHS hospitals, charities and private firms.
The focus on competition – perhaps the most controversial element of the plans – needed to be “significantly diluted”, it said.
Originally, the regulator – Monitor – was to have a primary duty to promote competition, but that is likely to be dropped along with the term “economic regulator”, which the forum said made the NHS sound too much like the gas or electricity industry.
Instead, Monitor should focus on ensuring patients have choice to drive up standards. While competition had a role to play, so did collaboration and integration, the forum said.
Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the forum’s changes to competition were a “step in the right direction”.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of British Medical Association, said the government’s approach during the listening exercise had been “refreshing”, but this needed to be maintained in the coming months.
Professor Steve Field, the former head of the Royal College of GPs who led the Future Forum, said while the principle of putting doctors in charge was well supported, he had heard “genuine and deep-seated concerns” from many.
“If the substantial changes we propose are accepted by government then I think the resulting framework will place the NHS in a strong position.”
Speaking ahead of the full government response, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the group had been an “invaluable source of expert advice”.
But, for Labour, shadow health secretary John Healey called the Future Forum report a “demolition job on the Tory-led government’s misjudgements and mishandling of the NHS over the past year”.
The BBC understands that ministers are hopeful the report and the government response will allow them to press ahead almost immediately with the programme.
Officials are working on the basis that amendments could be made to the bill within weeks, allowing the government to kick-start the parliamentary process before the summer.
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