A statue of the Hindu elephant-god Ganesha, patron of business dealings and art, greets visitors to Kongkiat Opaswongkarn's Asia Plus Securities Pcl in Bangkok. It's an apt introduction to Thailand's third-largest brokerage.Three floors of conference rooms, offices and corridors house paintings and sculptures Kongkiat has collected over two decades. A 700,000-baht ($22,000) gold-and-silver installation of Buddha's face hangs next to a female bronze dancing figurine. In a room framed by dark brown blinds, works by contemporary Thai artists Kamol Tassananchalee and Thawan Praman beckon, including a red wooden painting with an embedded chair.``Art is in my blood,'' said Kongkiat, the son of a photographer and chief executive officer of Asia Plus. ``Art, apart from the impression it creates, is part of your investment. It is like buying blue-chip stocks.''The 52-year-old investor owns more than 150 paintings, of which about 100 are by Thai artists, making him part of Thailand's small group of affluent private collectors. That circle is growing as soaring prices of Chinese and Indian art force collectors in Asia to look further afield for contemporary works from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.Only a handful of Thai artists are known outside the region, such as Thawan Dachanee, Chatchai Puipia and Natee Utarit. Most are exhibited in Bangkok galleries and bought by collectors in Southeast Asia. Kongkiat's most expensive Thai art purchase was a 3 million baht abstract piece from the 1960s by Thawan.`Wider Audience'``Chinese and Indian arts have been sold at auctions in the West, in London and New York, whereas Thai art has less international exposure,'' said Mok Kim Chuan, head of Southeast Asian Paintings at Sotheby's, one of the world's top two auction house. ``The market in Thailand is quite ready to engage the wider audience. We are seeing more enquiries.''Since the 1980s, Kongkiat has amassed more than 200 pieces of art, including paintings and Thai and European bronze, stone and marble sculptures. About 169 of the pieces were bought for an estimated $2.5 million, according to catalogs of his collection. Seven of his Thai paintings were recently shown at Bangkok's Queen's Gallery in an exhibition of 80 works by 9 Thai collectors, including former finance minister Amnuay Viravan and Bangkok Insurance Pcl chairman Chai Sophonpanich.`Young Market'``There is no one style for Thai art, in particular contemporary art,'' said Jorn Middelborg, managing director of Thavibu Gallery in Bangkok, which showcases works from Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. ``The 1950s was when modern paintings really started in Thailand. It is a young market.''Southeast Asian art sales are still a fraction of those for Western art. Sotheby's sold $9.74 million of Southeast Asian works at its Hong Kong auction in April, almost double the presale high estimate. In February, the auction house sold 95 million pounds ($190 million) of contemporary art in London.``In Thailand, sadly speaking, there are very few art lovers,'' Kongkiat said from his 11th floor office, which is filled with gilded Thai headdresses, masks, paintings and art books. ``When people started making money in the financial world and it became fashionable, those who were successful started having sports cars and expensive paintings.''Kongkiat honed both his banking skills and appreciation of art while at Bangkok-based Kasikornbank Pcl, formerly Thai Farmers Bank Pcl, in the 1980s. There, he worked under former chairman Bancha Lamsam, who Kongkiat called a ``great lover'' of the arts. Kongkiat later worked for Baring Securities, a unit of the collapsed Barings Plc.Winston DiamondsKongkiat said he didn't grow up in a wealthy household. Scholarships helped him earn an MBA and a post-doctoral degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. These days, he pays cash for paintings, buys Harry Winston diamonds for his wife and has a fondness for Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and Japan.``I started from zero,'' said Kongkiat, chairman of the Bangkok-based Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations, an umbrella group that includes the asset management industry and the Stock Exchange of Thailand. In 2002, he helped oversee the initial share sale of ITV Pcl, a broadcaster previously controlled by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family.Art collecting and banking ``are complementary,'' Kongkiat said. His collection of paintings and sculptures has outgrown his Bangkok home, his condo at the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin and his place in Chiang Mai. So, he and his wife bought a seven-story building in Bangkok to house many of the works.``The space doesn't hold all the pieces,'' said Kongkiat. ``I have to be more selective now.''