Tira worked in Vietnam for nearly 20 years as a telecoms engineer before becoming a professional art collector. After retiring in 2006, he happened to purchase more than 200 valuable paintings by Vietnamese painters. At that time, he had modest knowledge about painting and Vietnamese contemporary paintings.

His search for information about the paintings helped him learn more about Vietnamese paintings. The more he discovered, the more he became interested in Vietnamese paintings, particularly those produced by graduates of the Indochina Fine Arts College.

Tira said that he is lucky to have gained possession of such treasured paintings at cheap prices, including 220 sketches drawn by Ton Duc Luong during the wartime at only US$2,000.

So far, Tira has collected nearly 2,000 paintings, sketches and outlines by Vietnamese painters. Most of them were produced by those came out from the early period of Vietnam’s fine arts, such as To Ngoc Van, Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Tran Van Can, Ton Duc Luong and Nguyen Cao Thuong.

According to arts critic Phan Cam Thuong, the paintings in Tira’s collection, featured in different styles, clearly reflect the lives of Vietnamese people in the second half of the 20th century. The paintings can touch the hearts of anyone who wants to study the land and people, past and present of Vietnam, he said.

In 2008, he bought 130 paintings from a collection of Petro Paris, former Commercial Counselor of Italy in Vietnam. Highlights among those are seven painting by Bui Xuan Phai (1920 -1988), an established figure of Vietnamese art.

Tira also possesses dozens of sketches from Phai on small pieces of paper give as gifts to his friend, Nguyen Ba Dam, including one on a chocolate wrapping paper. No matter by ink pen, pencils or black lead, or simple brushstrokes, Phai successfully captured portraits of his close friend.

In 2012, he succeeded in convincing To Ngoc Thanh, son of painter To Ngoc Van (1906–1954) who left over a strong imprint with works and artistic ideas of deep influence on the Vietnamese fine arts, to sell his collection of Van’s sketches.

By owning nearly 400 of Van’s artworks, Tira is one of the collectors with the largest numbers of paintings and outlines by the talented Vietnamese painter.

Tira dedicated a special space in Bababa to display Van’s artworks, where half of the works are arranged along the four walls of the gallery.

Van’s sketches on display recount a story about a particular period in Vietnam’s history. Works on show also include Van’s famous paintings, such as ‘Hai Thieu Nu va Em Be’ (Two Ladies and a Child - 1944) and ‘Bac Ho o Bac Bo Phu’ (President Ho Chi Minh in Tonkin Palace - 1946).

Nora A. Taylor, Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (USA), said Tira’s collection is truly an archive of illustrations for resistance movements and the revolutionary cause against colonialists.

The collection is invaluable for historical researchers, she stressed.

Not only being interested in collecting Vietnamese paintings, over the past years, Tira has also worked as a bridge linking Vietnamese and Thai fine arts. In addition to displaying his stunning collection in Vietnam six times, he has also hosted exchanges between Vietnamese and Thai artists.

In 2015, he plans to open an exhibition of artworks by Vietnamese painters, in Bangkok.

Despite spending a lot of money and effort to collect and preserve numerous valuable paintings, he is displaying his collection for free to the public. Tira said that many collectors have asked him to sell the paintings but he only has one answer: no.

Tira says he would like to introduce contemporary Vietnamese fine arts to more and more Thai people and international visitors in general.