With the mainland and the rest of this region becoming a force to be reckoned with economically and politically, the Musee Guimet in Paris, which houses one of the biggest collections of Asian art in the West, is showcasing the rich heritage of Asia in a 21st-century context. And Hong Kong collectors and museums can play a role in this by loaning out works for exhibitions, says Jacques Gies, president of the 120-year-old institution.
Gies was recently in town seeking to collaborate with top local collectors and museums. He believes they might have items that may offer new insights into the mainland's history and challenge traditional Western ideas of its history and culture.
Gies says the Song and Yuan have long been considered the main dynasties by museums in the West, but this focus has since shifted to the Ming and Qing dynasties, as shown by a large-scale exhibition that opened last month at the National Museum of Taipei exploring the life and times of Qing emperor Yongzheng.
'Yongzheng may be considered a tiny subject because his rule was short when compared with that of Kangxi and Qianlong. But because knowledge continues to develop today, for scientific purposes, we cannot be unaware of this figure any more,' says Gies.
Since Hong Kong collectors have always prized ceramics from both the Ming and Qing dynasties, they might be able to contribute artefacts to facilitate studies of these periods.
'Today, you have collectors who have very tiny and, thus far, invisible subjects - but they are important. It is a duty for a museum like us to know, to have the knowledge of what's [important] today,' says Gies, who has been at the Musee Guimet for three decades.