The Collection
The Albuquerque Collection of Chinese Ceramics is internationally renowned as one of the most relevant of its kind. It features works created throughout six centuries of history, with an emphasis on Export Porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The result of over six decades of passionate dedication by Brazilian engineer Renato de Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Collection has gathered almost 2600 pieces. The works in the Collection are more than historical artifacts that demonstrate the exquisite sophistication of their creation and production – they testify to the trade exchanges and complex cultural influences that unfolded long ago. The techniques, colours, forms, materials and motifs of these utilitarian, ritual, devotional and decorative works transcend their own time. Their stories and trajectories continue to generate, and address, urgent contemporary questions such as colonialism, globalization, processes and means of production and technologic domination.
Having been seen piecemeal through the loan of works to numerous international cultural institutions, including lthe Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Victoria & Albert, the Albuquerque Collection is behind the creation of the Albuquerque Foundation. Its core role within this institution ensures that it is kept, conserved, researched and shown to the specialized public and to the general public, allowing it to continuously generate questions that address our time.
Selection of works from the Collection
