Jack Ma turns from collecting to making art - for charity

Jack Ma Yun, the billionaire chairman of Alibaba, is known to collect art but his own artistic talent had been kept under wraps - until now.

On Sunday, Sotheby’s Hong Kong will auction an oil painting called Paradise that is the work of Ma and Zeng Fanzhi, one of China’s most acclaimed contemporary artists.

The unfocused image of the earth is the result of Ma and Zeng using palette knives to scrape the thick paint used to depict the planet. It is meant to rouse the world’s attention to the need for environment protection, Ma writes in the auction catalogue. The 2014 work has a diameter of 79.6 centimetres and estimated to fetch HK$1.5 million to HK$2.5 million during Sunday’s evening sale of modern and contemporary Asian art.

The proceeds will go to the Paradise International Foundation, a charity Ma and other businesspeople and conservationists have set up to protect the environment.

Ma, a well-known philanthropist, remains one of China’s richest individuals even though shares in Alibaba are now trading at more than 13 per cent lower than their listing price in New York last year.