Hong Kong Palace Museum | HKPM Special Exhibition Talk Series: Nearly Two Hundred Years Old: The National Gallery, “A Collection for the Use of the Public”

In 2024 the National Gallery will be two hundred years old. Founded by the British Parliament in the slipstream of Enlightenment ideas of the social and educational benefits of public museums, over time it has become a treasure house of European painting as well as a London landmark; a magnet for international tourism as well as a centre for high-level research in the material sciences. It hosts exhibitions visited by many thousands of people and seeks to explore remote corners of the art historical landscape. It is the only national museum of historical painting that has a practising artists’ studio in the building as well as an attached digital laboratory. Central to its purpose is the sharing of the collections and expertise for the benefit of the public. Dr Gabriele Finaldi will discuss the history and challenges the Gallery faces on the threshold of the third century of its existence.

This talk accompanies the special exhibition “Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London”, on view in Gallery 9 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum from 22 November 2023 to 11 April 2024. As the first showcase of the National Gallery’s prestigious painting collection in Hong Kong, it features fifty-two of the world’s finest masterpieces painted by fifty influential artists, spanning more than four hundred years of Western art history.

The exhibition is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the National Gallery, London, with the financial support of the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

AIA Hong Kong & Macau is the Lead Sponsor, and Centurion from American Express is the Major Sponsor of this special exhibition.

The content of this programme does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

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