Top 200 Collectors

Wee Ee Cheong is the son of Wee Cho Yaw, an elderly Singaporean banking mogul whose wealth has been estimated at more than $6 billion, according to Forbes. They are both involved in the United Overseas Bank, Singapore’s third-largest bank, which has long been run by the Wee family. (Wee Kheng Chiang, Wee Cho Yaw’s father, was one of the cofounders of the bank, which was originally called United Chinese Bank and openedin 1935.) Though assailed by hostile takeover attempts from government investment companies and private billionaires, Wee Cho Yaw successfully thwarted each bid, and in 2007 Wee Ee Cheong was appointed CEO.

Wee Ee Cheong has said that the next inheritor to the UOB mantle may not be a member of his family, however. “If they can do the job, why not?” he asked in 2019. In addition to serving as CEO of UOB, Wee Ee Cheong is vice-president commissioner of PT Bank UOB Indonesia. He’s also director of the the Institute of Banking & Finance and chairman of the Association of Banks.

Despite Wee being a well-known figure in the economic worlds of Singapore and Indonesia, he has remained private about what’s in his art collection, though the family is known to prize top examples of Impressionism and modern art. UOB, however, does mount exhibitions in Singapore, Malaysia, and China through various art spaces it runs in those countries. Recently, Salvador Dalí’s sculpture Homage to Newton, featuring a lithe figure with a serpent-like creature winding its way up its body, outside a UOB bank in Singapore’s central business district.