Museum of East Asian Art

So this year, the year 2023, we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of the museum, which was founded by Brian McKelney, who, as you said, died recently, earlier this year. So sadly, he's not here to join us in celebrating the 30th year of the museum. But in a way, this exhibition has turned into a tribute to his life, a very fascinating story of his journey of collecting, which was mostly based in Hong Kong. So the exhibition is called From Hong Kong to Bath, because most of the collection was built up in Hong Kong in the 1950s to 1990s. And then he founded the museum and opened its doors in 1993. I knew Brian from going into Rosario's cafe for his breakfast. So I knew the man in his sort of late 80s, I suppose, completely unaware of his life story. So what have you discovered? As a young man, he went to Hong Kong, what was his profession? What was he doing? So actually, Brian was born in Hong Kong in 1932. So he was out there in Hong Kong, because his father was working as a GP out there in Hong Kong. And so he was, I would say, born and raised in Hong Kong until the age of five or six. He was sent back to the UK, where his family is originally from, to receive a British education. And then afterwards, he decided to be a lawyer. And so he started legal training in London, and shortly afterwards, returned to Hong Kong to start his very successful legal career. And so he was a very distinguished lawyer in Hong Kong. He was the president of the Hong Kong Law Society, which is an extremely prestigious society out there. So he was a distinguished lawyer, but also he found his passion in collecting in Hong Kong. And that was a very special time when the Hong Kong art market was really buoyant. So he was able to find really wonderful treasures that we are able to enjoy today in the museum. I think you have the first piece he collected. Yes. And I'm sure I've seen a video, an interview with him, when he says that that sitting Buddha cost him half a month's wages to actually buy it. Yes. So for him, it was very expensive at the time because I think he was still going through his legal training in London when he discovered it in a small antique shop. So it's actually one of the 30 highlight objects which we have on display now. So for this exhibition, we have historical photographs revealing his life, but also we've selected 30 highlight objects to signify 30 years of the museum, of course. And one of those objects is this wonderful gilt bronze Buddha that he had purchased for £26 in 1955. A lot of money. I'm sure it was in those days too. Have you been able to understand why he was so fascinated with East Asian art? Why he became such a passionate collector? Yes. So I think we have a few lovely quotes from Brian here. For example, he said here, I had always known I was going to return to Hong Kong. It was where I had been born. It was where my father had spent his life, and I've always considered it to be home. So he always had this wonderful connection with Hong Kong, which explains his interest in Chinese art specifically. But he also mentioned that when he was at school in the UK, there was a school teacher who really taught him how to appreciate art and got him interested in writing about art, and that really stuck with him throughout his life. So it all comes full circle when he went back to Hong Kong. He was surrounded himself by Chinese art connoisseurs, curators, scholars, dealers, fellow collectors, and really learning more about the subject and collecting more and more as he stayed on in Hong Kong for longer. Ivy, how did he eventually end up in Bath, and how indeed did this museum come about? So when Brian was thinking about retirement and where he would eventually leave his collection, he considered different places, and Bath was the place that he eventually decided on because this was a lovely city and he would be close to members of his family who were around here in the UK. And he was able to find this wonderful Georgian townhouse, which just suited the size of the collection, and was in a very lovely location near the circus. So he decided that this would be the final place for his collection. You have a lot of visual material illustrating Brian's long and distinguished life. Where has that come from? So actually we started off reviewing his lifelong journey of collecting, but we also wanted to weave in the histories of the communities in Hong Kong and Bath who have contributed to the success of the museum over the past 30 years. So apart from Brian's life, which we have pieced together from say pictures from family albums and information from his memoir that he had written, we also went through old photographic archives to show pictures of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong art market, auctions where Brian would have purchased pieces from. So we went through an incredible amount of material, not just black and white pictures, but also records and his old notebooks as well. So we have on display his scribbles very meticulously recording all the pieces that he had purchased, where he purchased them from, the research that he had done on them, how much he paid for each piece. So a lot of material that we went through. So not just photos, not just Brian, but also the wider picture. And we've got a video on show as well, which has footage that Brian had taken himself. So it's being played on loop in the background as well. So there's plenty for you to see in this exhibition.