Matthew Wong, the Van Gogh of the 21st century: he committed suicide at the age of 35 and now collectors are fighting for his works. In April 2023, Sotheby's sold his two-meter painting River at Dusk (2018) in Hong Kong for $6.6 million, Wong's record to date.
In 2020, just a year after his death, Christie's auctioned with a starting price of half a million dollars the painting Shangri-La, a colorful Eden, almost a patchwork of eastern mountains. Despite the obvious aesthetic parallel with the Dutch painter, the legend of suicide has also become a powerful marketing tool for auction houses.