British Museum gets £1bn Chinese ceramics collection

The British Museum is to receive the highest-value gift in UK museum history as it acquires £1bn worth of Chinese ceramics. Trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation are to donate 1,700 pieces to the London museum.

- CASEY COOPER-FISKE

British businessman Sir Percival David, who lived from 1892 to 1964, collected the items in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and China, with his passion for the country leading him to become fluent in Chinese.

The collection has been on loan to the museum since 2009 in the specially designed bilingual Room 95, with an online catalogue available to view across the world, as Sir Percival wanted his private collection to be used to inform and inspire people.

Director of the British Museum Dr Nicholas Cullinan said: “I am humbled by the generosity of the trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation in permanently entrusting their incomparable private collection to the British Museum.