“There were unusually steep losses on at least two pieces.”
The rule of thumb, if art works return unusually quick for auction, it is that they must have been overpaid for. Hence, the market tends to punish the sellers.
Lim pointed out that Low sold one 1935 Picasso painting for USD27.6 million (RM110.4 million). “He bought the painting in November 2013 at a price which was 45 per cent higher. That means that he suffered a loss of some RM50 million on just one painting.”
Last year, recalled Lim, the flamboyant Penang billionaire captured the attention of the art world. “He emerged as one of the art collectors who ‘buys paintings for over USD20 million, USD30 million, USD40 million’ in a ‘shopping spree for trophy pieces’ to swing the market.”
The question, said Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader, was whether such “wonder boys” were a boon or a bane.
The DAP veteran was reiterating that parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Hasan Arifin should resign if he dare not summon Jho Low to appear before the PAC hearings on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
“The whole world knows that Malaysia’s ‘wonder-boy’ tycoon and billionaire Jho Low was the main ‘mover and shaker’ behind Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s 1MDB scandal.”
“It seems that only the government authorities, including ‘cari makan’ Hasan Arifin, don’t know that.”
Lim wants to know whether this was the reason why Hasan was not summoning Jho Low to appear before the PAC hearings on 1MDB.
Alternatively, Lim wonders whether the reason was more likely the fact that they know who Jho Low was. “Hasan should resign as PAC chairman if he dare not summon Jho Low for ‘cari makan’ reasons.”
One of the greatest sins of omission of the PAC hearings on the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal was the rescindment of its earlier decision to summon Jho Low to testify before it, lamented Lim. “The people are still waiting for a cogent and reasonable explanation from Hasan.”
Then PAC Chairman, Nur Jazlan Mohamad, announced on July 24 last year that Low Taek Jho would be summoned to appear before the PAC on September 8 to testify on the 1MDB scandal.