OEI HONG DJIEN
The Authority of King Midas

Collector Oei Hong Djien displayed his painting collection as a record of his great relations with artists. But once he was tricked into buying forgeries.

May 12, 2009

THE painting promptly reminded one of the pictures formerly being peddled on sidewalks, in subject matter as well as quality. It portrayed a ramshackle cart with two oxen on both sides and a man wearing a sunhat near it. It’s in the painting style of mooi indie (fine Indies) adopted by self-taught artists like Santoso, the painter, in 1965. What’s surprising was not the painter, but rather its owner, Oei Hong Djien, 70, a painting collector w

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