Chinese cab driver-turned-property magnate and art collector. In late 2015 he paid $170m for Amedeo Modigliani's 1917 painting "Nu Couché", the second-highest amount ever paid for a piece of art at auction at the time—and did so with his American Express card. He and his wife founded two art museums in Shanghai.
Liu's trajectory typified China's property boom that kicked off in the early 2000s, one of the biggest and fastest generators of wealth in history. The mood turned as the property sector collapsed. In 2023 he put 39 of his works up for auction; of those, ten went unsold and the rest fetched prices below their expected value. In September 2025 his company, Tianmao Group, delisted from the Shenzhen stock exchange after posting two years of losses.
Everyone hates me because I'm paranoid.