Gothic art, sculptures, stained glass in Hong Kong exhibition offering rare opportunity to see such pieces up close
- The “High Gothic” exhibition at the University of Hong Kong lets visitors experience centuries-old works in a way that would be hard to find even in Europe
- Robert McCarthy, who owns the collection behind the exhibition, says Hong Kong museums need to broaden their scope beyond Asian works
Hong Kong-based hedge fund director Robert McCarthy was working in London in the 1990s when he bought his first medieval object. That day, the New York native was looking at furniture in an antique fair but ended up leaving with a medieval miniature – an exquisite, lavishly coloured painting cut from an illuminated manuscript.
He now owns more than 1,000 religious artefacts dating from the 11th century.
“I keep some of them in my Hong Kong apartment, with the stained glass all on one wall. The rest are in my London home. I don’t shut them up in a warehouse. I live with them,” says the director of Spinnaker Capital, which manages an emerging markets fund.
Some of the stained glass pieces from his collection are on view now at the University of Hong Kong Museum and Art Gallery, part of the “High Gothic” exhibition based on his collection that also includes sacred sculptures and church mouldings of between 500 and 800 years old, oak altarpieces, ecclesiastical embroideries, and framed pages and miniatures from vellum manuscripts.
His fascination with the period began in high school and he has a master’s degree in medieval history.