![]() Long known as one of the world’s most capitalist financial hubs on the south China coast, the former British colony has struggled to evolve a more vibrant and diversified arts scene to match its self-proclaimed stature as Asia’s world city.īut as other major regions in Asia compete fiercely for higher-end cultural and arts based tourism including China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, Sigg’s endowment could help galvanise Hong Kong’s current strengths which include a major art fair, as well as its booming art and wine auction markets, buoyed by a wave of mainland Chinese millionaires. ![]() “It will enable us to strengthen our position as the cultural hub in Asia,” said Stephen Lam, Hong Kong’s chief secretary and number two official. In a surprise move after years of hard negotiations with several cities around the world, Sigg chose to donate the bulk of his unique collection to an as-yet-unbuilt Hong Kong visual culture museum, Museum Plus (M+).Įmotional Hong Kong art administrators and leaders praised Sigg’s “historically” significant art bequest, that would catalyse what has been a long-delayed and troubled dream to realise a leafy, 40-hectare cluster of modernist buildings, museums and theatres on the edge of Victoria harbour. No ordinary collection and amassed over three decades by visionary Swiss businessman, Uli Sigg, 66, this definitive assemblage of some 1500 works spans China’s watershed and tumultuous recent decades of modernisation, and is conservatively estimated to be worth $167 million. ![]() HONG KONG (Reuters) - One of the world’s pre-eminent collections of Chinese contemporary art was bequeathed to Hong Kong on Tuesday by a Swiss collector, a move that could transform the city’s troubled bid to realise a new, world class cultural and arts hub.
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