British Museum receives donation of Chinese ceramics worth $1.27 billion

The British Museum said on Wednesday it would receive 1,700 pieces of world-renowned Chinese ceramics worth around 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion), in the largest donation in its nearly 300-year history.

The collection, which has been on loan to the British Museum since 2009, has been donated by the Percival David Foundation.

Examples from the collection include the blue-and-white "David vases" from 1351, a tiny porcelain wine cup from the late 15th century known as a "chicken cup," one of the most sought-after items in Chinese art, and "Ru wares," artifacts dating back to the late 11th century.

"This is the largest bequest to the British Museum in our long history," said George Osborne, chair of the British Museum. "It's a real vote of confidence in our future."

Thanks to the donation, the British Museum said it would hold one of the most important collections of Chinese ceramics of any public institution outside the Chinese-speaking world, numbering 10,000 objects.

Born in 1892, Percival David was a British businessman whose passion for China inspired him to study the language and collect ceramics — mainly objects of imperial quality or of traditional Chinese taste — to build his private collection.

British arts minister Chris Bryant said the collection would "educate and enlighten future generations for many years to come."

The British Museum said it would loan some of the ceramics to the Shanghai Museum in China and Metropolitan Museum in New York to support exhibitions there.

Porcelain was first produced in China around AD 600, and it is by far the most advanced in the world. The ceramic artifacts were made for the imperial court, for the domestic market or for export.