Wang Zhongjun, founder of Song Art. [Photo provided to China Daily]

However, Wang is not just an admirer of art but a doer as well. He is a productive producer of oil works, which are shown at exhibitions and fairs and are auctioned. At Song Art, a room is dedicated to his works.

Song Art officially opened on Nov 2, and a week later Wang received at the gallery the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award, given out each year by the German luxury goods maker in recognition of those who make art and culture more accessible to a wider public. He was among 17 winners worldwide.

"Art is part of my life," Wang says. "And the decision to open a museum was driven by a sudden impulse. Song is not the largest museum there is, but I dare say that it is one of the most inventive artistically."

Fan Di'an, dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, says Wang's effort to make his private holding of art accessible to the public is commendable, and it is a part of "social responsibility" that should be promoted as a way to diversify the public's art education.

Private museums and art foundations first appeared in the West in the 1920s, he says, but it has not been until recent years that private museums have been given a boost in the mainland, marking a new phase of what he sees as China's cultural progress.