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Hong Kong museum now boasts largest collection of modern artist Wu Guanzhong’s work after sixth family donation

Some 370 pieces of the Chinese painter’s work have been given to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, including the last four pieces he completed before his death

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Wu Keyu, son of Wu Guanzhong; Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of Hong Kong; and Szeto Yuen-kit, the curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Ng Kang-chung

The Hong Kong Museum of Art is set become the venue with the biggest collection of the most important paintings by one of China’s greatest modern artists, Wu Guanzhong, with the latest batch of donations from the family of the late painter.

The donations, the sixth batch from the family in the past 23 years, feature some 370 of Wu’s most important paintings, including the last four pieces he completed before he died in 2010. Other items included his work seals, certificates he received during his studies in France in the late 1940s, as well as painting tools he used.

While neither Wu’s family nor the museum put a value on the donations, an honorary adviser and former curator for the museum, Joseph Ting Sun-pao, estimated the total value at HK$1 billion (US$128 million) or more.

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Wu Guanzhong died in 2010. Photo: Xinhua
Wu Guanzhong died in 2010. Photo: Xinhua

With the latest donation, the Museum of Art will arguably own the most comprehensive collection of Wu’s work.

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“We now have oil paintings, ink paintings, sketches, watercolours, gouache paintings, acrylic paintings and porcelain paintings by the great artist over more than half a century,” the incumbent museum curator Szeto Yuen-kit said.

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