HANGING on the walls of the corporate floor of the new Sime Darby Bhd building are artworks by Datuk Ibrahim Hussein. The various pieces of Ibrahim’s art were bought when he was a young artist for a fraction of the millions the entire collection is valued at today.

Helping local art and culture seems to be the mission of many government-linked companies and agencies that now have expensive art of local artists adorning the walls of their offices. The collection at Sime Darby’s office did catch the eye of Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, chairman of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) which is the controlling shareholder of Sime Darby, who has passed a remark that the art at Sime Darby costs more than what graces the similar corporate office of PNB.