Collector donates US$167.5M in art to Hong Kong museum

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A huge trove of artwork from the world's premier collection of Chinese contemporary art has been donated to a new visual culture museum in Hong Kong. The donation features 1,463 pieces of artwork by 310 artists, including many critically-acclaimed names such as Ai Weiwei, Fang Lijun, Zhang Xiaogang, Gu Wenda, Zeng Fanzhi, and Xu Bing, according to museum authorities. Valued at a total of HK$1.3 billion (US$ 167.5 million) by auction house Sotheby's, the works stem from a celebrated private collection amassed over the past three decades by Uli Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador to China and a renowned art collector. Sigg's collection is internationally acclaimed not only for being the world's largest trove of Chinese contemporary art, but also for its comprehensiveness and historical importance in documenting the development of contemporary art in China. "The period 1979 - 2009 in China is a unique moment in art history. Given both the fact that many works, especially from the first ten years of this period were destroyed due to lack of interest from collectors and institutions, and the subsequent boom in the market for these works, it would be impossible to now build a collection similar in depth, scope and quality," Lars Nittve, the M+ museum's executive director, said in a statement. "By joining forces with M+, the art works will ultimately come full circle back to China as I have always hoped they would," Sigg added. He said his donation is intended to "enable these artists to have a space within M+ where they will communicate with an international audience, and where they will meet with a Chinese public." The donation, which will form part of M+'s permanent collection, provides a tremendous boost to the yet-as-unbuilt museum, which is intended to be the flagship facility in an ambitious government-led project to create a contemporary arts complex called the West Kowloon Cultural District. The high-profile project has experienced repeated delays, scrapped plans, high staff turnover, and many rounds of public consultations since its announcement in 1998.