Durian runtuh story (How I enriched Kirana MC's coffers by RM38,000)
“Durian runtuh” - Malay for a unexpected financial windfall, a stroke of good fortune . Literally “falling durian”
One day in 2010, I was eating my usual lunch of Nasi Lemak with beef rendang at Dome Cafe at KLCC Suria. Feeling bored I flicked through the pages of a magazine. That's how I serendipitously discovered Henry Butcher Art Auctions was holding its inaugural sale of contemporary Malaysian Art.
Awakenings, 1999 by Syarifah Fatimah, acrylic
I remembered a large abstract painting of a big arrow that once occupied a prominent niche on the wall of the ground floor lobby of Kondominiun Kirana (since rebranded and renamed Kirana Residence). It was next to a huge artificial tree that I particularly hated to look at.
But as part of a lobby refurbishment exercise, the unwanted painting was in our store room, waiting to find a new home. I dashed back to the MC management office on the 2F Kirana Residence, and made a phone call to the auctioneer. Enquiries revealed the painter was Malaysia's foremost living woman Expressionist artist, Sharifah Fatimah.
Catalogue description by Henry Butcher Art Auctions
At the next MC meeting I proposed to sell our now suddenly valuable Sharifah Fatimah painting by auction. In Malay, an unexpected financial windfall is called “Durian runtuh”, literally falling durian. (For overseas readers of my blog, durians are a prickly fruit with large thorns. The yellow seeds are fleshy with a distinctive smell of a rotting animal or plant. Malaysians though prize durians as the “King of fruits” and pay astronomical sums of money for certain cultivars like ” Musang King”)
It was unanimously agreed to consign our durian runtuh Sharifah Fatimah painting for sale by auction. A reserve price was fixed. After deducting expenses (the auctioneer's hefty commission, photography fees, authentication fees, insurance, catalogue printing fees etc etc,) the sale of the painting fetched a net sum of RM38,000 for the MC's coffers if my memory is correct. The buyer I think was Bank Negara.
And that is the satisfying conclusion of my tale of how a chance decision to eat Nasi Lemak instead of Char Kuay Teow for lunch resulted in Kirana Management Corporation’s bank account being richer by RM38,000.
So if your KLCC JMB or MC wants to refresh your aging lobby, it pays to enquire whether you might have some valuable art work hanging on your lobby wall before they are consigned to the garbage tip.
It wasn't exactly smooth sailing getting the Sharifah Fatimah painting sold at auction. The MC committee was surprised to find there was no mention of the Sharifah Fatimah painting on the inventory manifest of the MC. To sell the painting on the auction date required the MC to prove ownership. So there were some anxious moments all around before the directors of the developer agreed to meet and to pass a company resolution to gift the painting to the MC.
What happened to the big artificial tree in the old Kondominium Kirana lobby that I found so ugly? It was so huge -the branches must have reached out to 15 feet high- that it would take a small truck to cart it off to the rubbish tip. I decided on a creative solution to dispose of the tree at no cost. Now I also volunteered to serve in the MC committee of a KLCC condominium, Menara Avenue. The MC secretary of Menara Avenue was a property agent who I knew quite well and had dealings with over the years. I invited her and her high society friends to our own artwork auction at Kirana Residence where unwanted artwork from the old lobby was to be sold to the highest bidder.
Old lobby before refurbishment,circa 2010
To cut a long story short, the MC secretary bought on behalf of Menara Avenue MC the big artificial tree at the reserve price of RM60, I think. She later complained to me the cost of hiring a truck to cart the tree off to Menara Avenue was RM150, more than double the price of the artificial tree. I pointed out the original cost of the artificial tree when new was probably a few thousand Ringgit. She had got a bargain, really, for Menara Avenue MC. I had to practice saying that with a straight face for at least three times before I could say the word “bargain” without breaking out into a laugh.
Note and disclaimer:
I also picked up a sofa and two other artworks from the same artwork auction at Kirana Residence. To remain at arms length, I had previously told the property manager to set reserve prices without consulting any MC committee members. A total of slightly over RM1,000 was raised by auction.
In 2021, Henry Butler Art Auctions put up for sale a similar painting by Sharifah Fatimah.. “The Link”, an acrylic on canvas had a reserve price of RM50,00 to RM80,000 but passed at auction. The Link is now on exhibit at the Penang State Art Gallery
The Menara Avenue MC secretary has since informed me the big artificial tree is no longer at their condominium lobby. Apparently the leaves were brittle and kept dropping off, and so it was finally carted off to the rubbish tip. Oh and the price paid was RM50, not RM60 as I remembered. Since I’m a qualified Warga Emas (Golden Retiree, Malaysia), my memory has been getting brittle too.
