Fly on Corporate Wall

Forbes magazine had high-value reasons for including Boonchai Bencharongkul among Thailand’s “heroes of philanthropy” last year, citing his devotion to education and culture. His latest gift to the public – the Museum of Contemporary Art – is set to open on April 18.
Forbes reckoned the museum was an US$8.4-million (Bt2.5-billion) investment, but that estimate now sounds low given rising land prices, not to mention his collection of modern Thai paintings inside.
“It’s rather difficult for someone who has Bt1 billion to start a project like this,” Boonchai says. “First you have to make up your mind whether to collect the art first or buy the land and start the building first!”
Luckily he bought the land on Vibhavadi Road 15 years ago when it was “only” Bt200 million. It cost another Bt600 million to put up the building, which at 20,000 square metres is bigger than the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
It will also have more artwork – 400 pieces – than the state-owned Chao Fah Gallery, and yet that’s just a fraction of Boonchai’s stash. He says he’s withholding his political-satire art lest it touch off riots.
Boonchai owns almost as many pieces by Thawan Dutchanee as Thawan does, and Thawan is globally famous, so right there is an indicator of the collection’s worth. Boonchai shrugs that he paid “kid’s prices” for most of the works by Thawan.
We don’t even want to think about what a “kid’s price” is, but clearly Boonchai is the country’s foremost arts patron, a solid source of support for living artists. “I have to make sure I protect the artists’ intellectual rights too,” he says.
You know what’s next? Boonchai is planning two more museums – one for postage stamps and one for banknotes – in the Benchachinda Building he owns. Doesn’t the Bank of Thailand already have a banknote museum? “They borrow from my collection!” he says, pointing out that he has many rarities, including a set of notes printed on only one side.
We prefer the kind of rich people who share their stuff with everybody else rather than keeping it in the family vault. Boonchai’s apt to be on Forbes’ philanthropy list for 2012 as well. It’s not as though he has much competition in Thailand.

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