The enigmatic collectors’ society opening its vault of Chinese masterpieces

For Dr Maria Mok Kar-wing, staging an exhibition of more than 500 priceless items tickled her maternal instincts. “It was more like handling 500 babies,” says the director of the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) of organising “Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five”. “The collectors are their parents and these treasures are their babies.” Never mind that some of them are thousands of years old. The infants in question are, in fact, Chinese antiques, and their “parents” as such are...