Obituary | Chinese-Indonesian art collector ‘Budi’ Tek, founder of Shanghai’s Yuz Museum, and the legacy he left behind
- Budiardjo ‘Budi’ Tek, who died on March 18 aged 65, made his fortune in poultry, but is best known for his art collection and for opening Shanghai’s Yuz Museum
- In recent years, his museum signed deals with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Qatar Museums to develop exhibitions together
This story has been updated with a statement from the the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Six years is a long time to live with a death sentence. But after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2015, Budiardjo “Budi” Tek harnessed the same positivity and drive that saw him rescue his company from bankruptcy in the 1990s, and poured himself into an urgent mission to preserve the legacy of his private museum and considerable Chinese art collection.
Tek, who died in Hong Kong on March 18 at the age of 65, was a Chinese-Indonesian businessman who made his fortune in the poultry business.
Before his illness, he was the head of Sierad Produce, one of Indonesia’s largest vertically integrated chicken producers, which sold everything from chicken feed and live birds to processed meat, and whose international restaurant business once ran the Wendy’s burger franchise in Hong Kong.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 1998, Tek gave a vivid description of what it was like for an import-dependent company in Indonesia to be caught out by the 1997 Asian financial crisis and ensuing sharp devaluation in the Indonesian rupiah, and to have creditors constantly knocking on his door. Eventually, he sold assets, changed the way the chickens were sold, and pulled through.
He remained director and president of Sierad Produce until he sold it to the Angkosubroto family in 2015.
