Singapore
At Singapore’s secretive Le Freeport, a fortified luxurious storage facility usually dubbed “Asia’s Fort Knox,” safety is arguably tighter than at the worldwide airport it connects to. Art, jewels and gold bars can enter the windowless constructing immediately — and discreetly — from the runway at neighboring Changi, however anybody arriving by way of the entrance gate should go by means of bulletproof glass vestibules, one-by-one, earlier than present process a full physique scan and baggage X-ray.
The tough half, nevertheless, is acquiring an invitation in the first place.
Freeports supply ultra-rich collectors someplace to retailer property and prized possessions away from prying eyes. Often arrange in high-net-worth hubs, from Geneva to Monaco, the controversial amenities are additionally sometimes tax-free, making them enticing locations to promote and commerce luxurious items with out paying import duties or different levies — as long as all the pieces stays on the premises.
Since opening in 2010, Singapore’s first freeport has prided itself on offering final privateness in a city-state with one of the world’s highest concentrations of wealth. But Chaw Wei Yang, a cryptocurrency investor whose father owns an artwork storage firm inside Le Freeport, just lately invited NCS on a rare tour of the constructing. Alongside his private stash of modern artwork and collectibles, the 26-year-old has one thing much more invaluable saved in a vault, deep inside the facility, that he desires to share with the world — and it’s a minimum of 66 million years previous.
Masterpieces and a Triceratops
Upon getting into the freeport on a sweltering Singapore afternoon, the temperature instantly drops. The Swiss-designed constructing operates managed circumstances of 69.8 levels Fahrenheit and 55% relative humidity — a necessity when storing delicate commodities in a tropical local weather, classic watches or centuries-old work (it has each). The wine part is colder nonetheless.
“You have peace of mind that your pieces are stored in the best possible conditions,” stated Chaw, who has been coming to the freeport since he was a teenager. This sense of safety extends past the constructing’s heavy metallic gates, he added. “With all the political uncertainties in the world, I think Singapore is one of those unique places that is still a safe bet.”
Rather than working as a single firm, the freeport hosts an ecosystem of merchants and storage services specializing in several property — together with Chaw’s father’s positive artwork enterprise, which occupies roughly 20% of the 323,000-square-foot constructing. Chaw leads us there, by means of an austere atrium dominated by a 126-foot-long, Möbius-strip-inspired sculpture (titled, fittingly, “Cage Without Borders”) and alongside echoey hallways bathed in atmospheric blue mild.
Inside Asia’s secretive tremendous vault for the ultra-rich
Deep inside Singapore’s freeport, a fortified luxurious storage facility usually dubbed “Asia’s Fort Knox,” a near-complete Triceratops fossil awaits public sale. Ahead of the sale, the dinosaur’s owner Chaw Wei Yang, a 26-year-old artwork collector and cryptocurrency investor, takes NCS’s Oscar Holland on a rare tour of the secretive tax-free facility.
On both facet, heavy-duty bolstered doorways open onto rooms ranging in measurement from round 100 to over 1,000 sq. toes. Most are configured for storage, with work packed away in picket crates. But others function personal viewing rooms the place collectors can exhibit wall-mounted artworks to visitors or potential consumers. (Chaw’s tour had begun with a disconcerting warning about these rooms: Upon listening to any alarm, we’re to evacuate instantly, as the nitrogen hearth suppression system works by quickly eradicating oxygen from the hermetic areas to suffocate the flames).
The artwork storage space homes all the pieces from European Baroque masterpieces to Chinese ink work. For the previous 12 months, nevertheless, Chaw has been holding an altogether totally different type of treasure right here: a near-complete Triceratops fossil.
The specimen, dubbed Trey, dates from the late Cretaceous interval. It was excavated by a business paleontology firm in the US in 1993 then loaned, by its earlier owner, to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, the place it was seen by an estimated 1 million guests throughout nearly three a long time on show.
The fossil was transported to Singapore in customized padded crates final 12 months and arrived in items at the freeport, the place it was assembled, mounted and dramatically lit. Having as soon as roamed what’s right now the Wyoming badlands, Trey now stands alone in a safe room, its tail barely curved and legs angled as if poised to take a step.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to own a dinosaur,” Chaw stated, as we slowly circled the fossil. “I grew up with a lot of dinosaur toys. And it’s so intriguing, but also very inspiring, to see these prehistoric creatures that have been around way longer than all of us.”
While a fully-grown Triceratops may be nearly 30 toes lengthy, Trey is a sub-adult and solely measures round 17 toes lengthy (and over 7 toes tall). The specimen nonetheless weighs nearly a ton. Chaw stated he purchased the fossil round two-and-a-half years in the past, and different traders have since come on board.
As collector’s objects, dinosaur fossils are inherently extra accessible than work or sculptures, he proposed. “With art, you need context, you need some background to understand the artist and the art. But for dinosaurs — and I’ve seen the reactions, from old people to kids, people from America or from Japan — the appeal is universal. People grew up with it.”
Chaw and his companions have capital appreciation in thoughts, too: “Of all the alternative assets I grew up seeing — wine, art, cars — I think dinosaurs are the most untapped, investment-wise,” he stated. “It’s a no-brainer.”
One cause why Chaw has gone public with his fossil is that he’s placing it on sale by way of Joopiter, a web-based public sale home owned by musician, producer and Louis Vuitton males’s artistic director, Pharrell Williams. Founded in 2022, the digital-first platform targets youthful collectors with zeitgeisty artwork, merchandise and collectibles. “The interest that we’ve been receiving is really exceptional,” stated Joopiter’s world head of gross sales, Caitlin Donovan, over Zoom, providing a value estimate of between $4.5 million and $5.5 million.
Andre LuJan, a paleontologist working with Chaw and Joopiter on the public sale, stated the fossil is over 70% full, primarily based on bone mass calculations. (Large dinosaur fossils are nearly at all times found in fragments, not of their entirety; Trey’s lacking bones have due to this fact been changed with replicas solid from different specimens, as is regular museum observe.) This rare stage of completeness, alongside with the fossil’s well-documented possession historical past, makes Trey “a singular item,” LuJan stated, additionally over Zoom, including: “It’s really not comparable to any other specimen out there.”
Whether fossils like this could even be in personal fingers stays a matter of debate in each collector circles and scientific communities. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is amongst the skilled organizations vocally opposing the business sale and personal possession of scientifically vital fossils. “I would love to see somebody buy this and place it in an institution,” stated LuJan, who arrived in Singapore shortly after our tour to fulfill with potential consumers at the freeport.
Chaw is just not disclosing how a lot he purchased the fossil for, or the exact causes he’s promoting it. But he, too, hopes Trey goes “to a good home.” Auctions are, by definition, winner-takes-all affairs, regardless of who the purchaser is. But the younger collector thinks Joopiter — extra so than established auctioneers like Christie’s or Sotheby’s — can entice a “certain profile” of potential homeowners who will “understand the importance and cultural significance” of the fossil, he added.
Just down the corridor from Trey, sellers are buying and selling in maybe the oldest and most dependable asset of all of them: gold.
Chaw takes us to BullionStar, the place silver and gold bars emerge theatrically from a hidden show case. The saleroom’s window blinds then raise to disclose rows of bullion stacked two tales excessive. The firm presently holds round $2 billion’s value of treasured metals in Singapore’s freeport, in line with its deputy CEO Pete Walden.
“We have different customers from across the globe,” he added, presenting some of his hottest merchandise (specifically “more portable” ones like 100-gram gold bars, which, at the time of writing, retail for round $16,000). “If they’re holding quite large amounts, they’d also want to come here and see it in person.”
Activity at the freeport displays world occasions. Gold and silver are what Walden calls “crisis commodities” that “generally do very well during periods of instability, whether that’s geopolitical instability or Trump announcing tariffs.” The US and Israel’s conflict with Iran has been no totally different. “We’ve been extremely busy,” Walden added.
Advocates for freeports argue that they increase commerce and funding — and so they definitely make locations like Singapore a extra enticing proposition for the ultra-wealthy. Yet, in addition to explicitly encouraging tax avoidance, the amenities additionally stand accused of tacitly aiding cash laundering, smuggling and arranged crime. In 2019, a particular committee of the European Parliament advisable phasing out the freeports throughout the European Union, although, for now, they proceed to function extensively there.
Singaporean authorities have recognized the danger of monetary crimes going down inside the freeport, although they’ve by no means made particular allegations of wrongdoing. Le Freeport’s CEO Lincoln Ng stated the facility “fully complies with all regulatory requirements, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing,” including that every one the companies working there are licensed by Singapore’s customs authorities.
Le Freeport has additionally struggled financially. Masterminded by Yves Bouvier, a Swiss businessman and artwork seller referred to as the “Freeport King,” his Singapore undertaking reportedly racked up debt and operational losses by means of the 2010s, as banks retreated from bodily commodities and Chinese demand slowed amid a crackdown on abroad luxurious spending.
In 2022, Chinese-born Singaporean crypto billionaire Jihan Wu’s firm Bitdeer bought the facility for a reported $28 million — a vital markdown on a constructing that price roughly $100 million to finish. Ng stated Le Freeport is now a “cashflow positive business.”
Much of Singapore’s freeport is off-limits to reporters. During our tour, Chaw regularly asks us to chorus from filming and taking photographs, on account of considerations over safety or purchasers’ privateness. But his art-filled private room is one other matter.
Like many Gen-Z collectors, Chaw’s passions are rooted in avenue artwork, streetwear and limited-edition merch — pursuits mirrored on the concrete partitions of his private bunker-like room. Artworks on conspicuous show embrace a giant canvas by graffiti legend Futura, one of Damien Hirst’s spot paintings and a signed “Squid Game” figurine by American artist KAWS. Chaw views gathering as a mixture of three elements: appreciation of the artwork, its funding worth and the ensuing social capital (or gathering as “a flex,” as he places it, whereby “communities open up for you that aren’t necessarily available to everybody else”).
Chaw makes use of the area to host mates, fellow collectors and celebrities. Low chairs and an L-shaped couch are organized round a marble desk adorned with a chess board signed by five-time chess world champion Magnus Carlsen, who performed an exhibition match at the freeport in 2024. More just lately, Ok-pop group Seventeen visited following the band’s sell-out present at Singapore’s National Stadium.
Also on show are a number of Trey miniatures, in addition to a fiberglass scale reproduction of the Triceratops’ cranium. They have been made by laser-scanning the fossil to provide correct molds. Replicas are — alongside with totes, caps and T-shirts — half of a merchandise drive surrounding the upcoming sale. “We want to create a cultural moment around it, and allow people to participate in it, get excited about Trey, get more informed about him and even participate in it through merchandise,” Chaw stated.
Having grown up surrounded by museum-quality work hidden from public view, Chaw stated he’s now on a mission to “democratize” artwork. In 2021, he based the digital platform Co-Museum, which gives “co-collectors” shared possession of artworks and cultural objects which may in any other case be out of their attain. This could quickly embrace fossils, which he referred to as the “next wave” of collectibles, corresponding to modern Asian artwork in the early 2000s or Pokémon playing cards now.
“We have other dinosaurs that we have acquired or are in the process of acquiring,” he stated, including: “We’re gonna really put dinosaurs and fossils at the front of alternative asset classes.”
NCS’s Maheshpreet Kaur Narula contributed to this report.