Historic Donation of Chinese Ceramics to the British Museum

On Wednesday, the trustees of one of the world’s most prestigious private collections of Chinese ceramics made headlines by donating all 1,700 objects to the British Museum. This remarkable gift, valued at an astounding £1 billion (approximately $1.27 billion), is a significant addition to the museum’s extensive collection.

The collection, originally amassed by Sir Percival David, features notable pieces such as the David vases—two exquisite blue-and-white porcelains dating back to 1351—as well as a stunning wine cup adorned with chicken motifs, believed to have been used by the Chenghua emperor during the Ming dynasty.

Since 2009, the Sir Percival David Foundation had generously lent this remarkable collection to the British Museum, where it has been showcased in a dedicated gallery. However, the foundation’s trustees have now opted to make this contribution a permanent one, marking a momentous occasion for both the museum and the world of art.

George Osborne, the chairman of the British Museum, expressed his enthusiasm for the donation, calling it “a real vote of confidence” in the museum’s future endeavors. This announcement comes just over a year after the museum faced controversy, having dismissed a curator accused of theft from its storerooms.

This donation is not the first of its kind to a Western institution, highlighting a trend of substantial contributions to art museums. In 1991, philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg declared his intention to donate a $1 billion collection of paintings—including masterpieces by Manet, van Gogh, and Picasso—to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Similarly, in 2013, cosmetics mogul Leonard A. Lauder pledged his collection of Cubist artworks, featuring 33 pieces by Picasso, valued at over $1 billion.

While such monumental donations are relatively rare for museums in the UK, the British Museum did witness a significant bequest two years ago when a former trustee left an invaluable collection of Chinese artworks, including several hundred jade pieces, estimated to be worth £123 million (around $156 million).

Sir Percival David was born in 1892 in what is now Mumbai, India, into a Jewish family with historical ties to Iran. An heir to the Sassoon textile and banking fortune, he moved to England in 1913. His passion for collecting ignited after purchasing three Chinese ceramics, leading him to become an avid collector.

In 1924, Sir Percival traveled to Beijing, where he first encountered the Imperial collection. He was dismayed to find much of it stored away and took it upon himself to fund the restoration of a building to display these treasures. By 1927, he had become an advisor to China’s National Palace Museums.

Jessica Harrison-Hall, the curator of the Sir Percival David Collections at the British Museum, described Sir Percival as a “remarkable man” deeply devoted to Chinese culture, whose interests extended beyond collecting to include the translation of 14th-century texts. Rather than being merely a “stamp collector” focused on acquiring iconic pieces, he aimed to build a comprehensive collection that would serve scholars, ensuring multiple examples of significant works were included. As Harrison-Hall noted, “You simply couldn’t build up a collection like this today.”