Noted Hong Kong art collectors make large donation of works to new museum M+, mostly by local creators

The donation of 90 works from William and Lavina Lim is one of the most significant additions to the museum due to open in Autumn 2021, its chief curator says

Samson Young, Lee Kit and Lam Tung-pang among significant Hong Kong artists featured in the collection

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William and Lavina Lim in their Wong Chuk Hang studio in Hong Kong. The art collectors have made a significant donation of contemporary art to M+. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 4:00pm, 10 Dec 2020Updated: 8:47pm, 10 Dec 2020

Hong Kong visual culture museum M+ announced on Thursday that its board had approved a large donation of contemporary art from architect William Lim Ooi-lee and his wife Lavina Lim Yuk-mui, an interior designer.

The donation consists of 90 works made in the last 20 years, around 70 per cent of them by Hong Kong creators, which makes this one of the most significant additions to the new museum slated to open in Autumn 2021, chief curator Doryun Chong says.

Besides notable works by Samson Young, Lee Kit, Lam Tung-pang and 27 other well-known local artists, there is also a sprinkling of international names including Lee Bul, Manit Sriwanichpoom and Haegue Yang.

The significance of this donation is more than just the artworks themselves. This is the entire content of the Lim’s studio in Wong Chuk Hang where they have hosted gatherings for the jet-setting art-world elite since 2013, when Art Basel first took over the Hong Kong Art Fair. The studio has both activated and witnessed the taking off of international interest in Hong Kong art, Chong says.

Works at William and Lavina Lim’s Wong Chuk Hang studio. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

William Lim is the first to admit that he was a complete novice back when the couple started buying art regularly around 2006. At the time, they owned a furniture shop near art critic and curator John Batten’s gallery on Peel Street.