Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Collections

Collections

Starting from nothing, the entire collection now comprises over twelve thousand items. The acquisition of the late Mr. Jian Youwen's collection in 1973, which consisted of over one thousand items of Ming, Qing and modern Guangdong pieces, formed the core of the Art Museum's painting and calligraphy collection. Since then, gifts from generous donors have continuously augmented the holdings, including works from the Song and Yuan to modern periods. Since the inception of the Art Museum, Chinese epigraphy and rubbings have been its major objectives in acquisition and research. The rare rubbings from the Song and Ming eras are renowned. The ceramics collection is fairly comprehensive. As for other collections such as bronzes, jades, lacquer ware, ivories, objects for the scholar's desk and sculpture, even though the items are relatively few in number, many of them are nonetheless of outstanding quality. In particular, the Museum has representative research collections of diversified themes, including ancient seals, epigraphic specimens, rubbings, paintings and calligraphy by renowned masters, wood and bamboo slips of Qin and Han times, and export ceramics. These collections have attained recognition at international levels.