Uli Sigg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uli Sigg, 2010 (cropped) .jpg
Federal President Doris Leuthard ; Mr Wu, President of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, and Uli Sigg, Commissioner General of the Swiss Pavilion Expo 2010 Shanghai at Expo 2010 , on the chairlift of the Swiss Pavilion (2010).

Uli Sigg (born April 29, 1946 in Lucerne ) is a Swiss business journalist, entrepreneur, art collector, patron , castle owner, oarsman - when he was 22 years old, he became Swiss champion in eight rowing - and former Swiss ambassador in Beijing (1995 –1998) for the People's Republic of China , North Korea and Mongolia .

biography

Uli Sigg studied from 1968 to 1972 at the University of Zurich Law . He then worked as a business journalist in Asia. In 1977 he took up a position at Schindler in Ebikon, Lucerne . He traveled to China with several managers to set up and develop a joint venture there. In 1980, after tough negotiations, CSE China Schindler Elevators Co. was established. It was the first ever joint venture between a western industrial group and a Chinese state-owned company. Two elevator factories in Beijing and Shanghai with a few thousand employees were taken over by Schindler. Until the end of 1990, Sigg was Vice President of the CSE for the Schindler Group. The doctor of law is considered a great expert on China because he spent a large part of his life in China. Sigg was also the founding president of the Switzerland – China Chamber of Commerce .

On 18 April 2007 Sigg has been approved by the Swiss Federal Council to the Commissioner-General of the Swiss Pavilion Expo 2010 Shanghai at the World Expo in Shanghai, the Expo 2010 appointed. Sigg has a seat on various boards of directors, including a. in the companies Vitra and Ringier ; he worked for Ringier as a business journalist back in the 1970s. He is also a member of the advisory board of the China Development Bank . During the construction of the Beijing National Stadium , Sigg advised the architects Herzog & de Meuron . Sigg is also a member of the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the International Advisory Council of Tate Gallery in London.

Art collection

Mauensee Castle, where parts of the art collection of Uli and Rita Sigg are housed

Uli Sigg is known to the general public as an art collector. He began collecting Chinese contemporary art in the 1970s. In just a few decades, he amassed the world's largest and most important collection in this field. Sigg is personally known to many of the artists he has collected, including Ai Weiwei . Parts of the art collection are located at Sigg's Mauensee Castle , which is on its own island in the Mauensee .

Uli Sigg first really noticed Mauensee Castle when, as a young officer in the Swiss Army, he was given the task of storming the Mauensee Island with his men as part of a maneuver. When Sigg took the island, he thought: “It would be nice to live like this.” Decades later, Sigg realized his dream and bought the castle, built in 1605, including the 1.4 hectare island and the 56 hectare lake. After extensive restoration work, he moved into Mauensee Castle with his wife Rita in 1998. The island, which is not open to the public, is connected to the mainland by a bridge.

Chinese Contemporary Art Awards

In 1997 Uli Sigg founded the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA). The prize is awarded every two years, the first time being in 1998.

Sigg Collection goes to Hong Kong

During a media conference in Hong Kong on June 12, 2012, it was announced that Uli Sigg had donated most of his collection of contemporary Chinese art, a total of 1,463 works, to the M + , the Museum of Visual Culture, in Hong Kong . Sigg sold a further 47 works to the museum for CHF 22 million. The M + Museum, which will be built in the West Kowloon Cultural District , is expected to open in 2019. The auction house Sotheby’s estimated the works of art going to Museum M + at a value of around CHF 185 million. Around 600 works remain in Sigg's possession, including many personal pieces.

Lars Nittve , head of the Museum M + project, said the following about the collection of contemporary Chinese art by Uli and Rita Sigg at the media conference on June 12, 2012 in Hong Kong:

"It would be impossible to build a collection of the same depth and quality now."

- The Art Newspaper, Art Basel edition: Swiss collector's huge gift to Hong Kong museum, June 13, 2012.

Film adaptations

Exhibitions

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Schindhelm: And then came Sigg. How the Lucerne people introduced capitalism in China. In: Das Magazin , Tamedia, Zurich February 27, 2016, pp. 10–21.
  2. ↑ a b c Federal Department of Foreign Affairs : Press release Expo 2010 Shanghai. April 18, 2007.
  3. ↑ https://www.ringier.ch/de/organisation/dr-uli-sigg
  4. ↑ Swiss Radio DRS : DRS2 currently. June 14, 2012.
  5. ^ Swiss television : Culture. June 22, 2011.
  6. ↑ Balance : The richest and their castles: Burgherren. 4th December 2009.
  7. ^ Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (website).
  8. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Sigg Collection goes to Hong Kong. June 13, 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.ulisiggmovie.com
  10. ↑ CHINESE WHISPERS. New art from the Sigg Collection - MAK Museum Vienna. Retrieved November 29, 2018 .
  11. ↑ More than a heroic story. In: Blick.ch from May 5, 2019.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sigg, Uli
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss art collector
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne