Joseph Hotung
{{Short description|Hong Kong businessman, art collector, and philanthropist (1930–2021)}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| caption =
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| birth_name = Joseph Edward Hotung
| birth_place = Shanghai, China
| birth_date = {{birth date|1930|05|25|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|12|16|1930|05|25|df=y}}
| death_place = London
| alma mater = University of London
| occupation = Businessman
| known_for = Art collection, philanthrophy
| father = Edward Hotung
| mother = Alice Maud Newman
| spouses = Mary McGinley, Ann Carlo
| relatives = Robert Hotung (grandfather), Eric Hotung (brother)
}}
Sir Joseph Edward Hotung (25 May 1930 – 16 December 2021) was a British/Hong Kong businessman, art collector, and philanthropist.{{Cite news |title=Sir Joseph Hotung obituary|newspaper=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/sir-joseph-hotung-obituary-vrgbh95wl |access-date=29 March 2022 |issn=0140-0460}}
Biography
Hotung was born in 1930 in Shanghai to Edward Hotung, a founder of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange in Hong Kong, and his wife, Alice Maud Newman (aka "Mordia O'Shea"). He had an elder brother, Eric, who died in 2017, and two sisters, Mary and Antonia. His grandfather was tycoon Sir Robert Hotung (1862-1956), known as "the grand old man of Hong Kong", who, by the age of 35, had become the richest man in the territory.{{Cite web |title=JOSEPH HOTUNG Obituary (2021) New York Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/joseph-hotung-obituary?id=32002481 |access-date=29 March 2022 |website=Legacy.com}}{{Cite web |date=3 October 2017|title=Tycoon, philanthropist, lover: many sides of the late Eric Hotung, 91 |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2113761/tycoon-philanthropist-lover-many-sides-late-hong-kong |access-date=29 March 2022|website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}
Joseph Hotung was educated at St Francis Xavier College, Shanghai; St Louis College, Tianjin; the Catholic University of America; and the University of London, from which he received a LL.B.{{Cite web |title=SIR JOSEPH HOTUNG BECOMES TRUSTEE OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2000/sir-joseph-hotung-becomes-trustee-of-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art |access-date=29 March 2022 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}
Hotung began his career at Marine Midland Bank, New York, shortly after finishing his education, and returned to Hong Kong, after his father and grandfather died, to start his own business. He was involved in the family's Hong Kong real estate development and investment business, and served as a director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC Holdings plc, and the Hongkong Electric Company.{{cn|date=January 2023}}
Hotung was a supporter of many educational institutions. He funded the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education with the Government of Hong Kong, endowed a program for Law, Human Rights, and Peace Building in the Middle East at SOAS University of London, funded HIV/AIDS research at St George's, University of London and the construction of the Sir Joseph Hotung Centre in St George's Hospital Tooting that provides a facility for musculoskeletal treatment, research and education,[https://www.bbf-fielding.co.uk/case-studies/sir-joseph-hotung-centre-tooting/] endowed a post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and founded the lecture theater at Mansfield College, Oxford.{{Cite web |title=LCQ20: The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education |url=https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201001/13/P201001130207.htm |access-date=29 March 2022|website=info.gov.hk}}{{Cite web |title=Joseph E Hotung Postdoctoral Research Fellow {{!}} Weatherhead East Asian Institute |url=https://weai.columbia.edu/content/joseph-e-hotung-postdoctoral-research-fellow |access-date=29 March 2022|website=weai.columbia.edu}}{{Cite web |title=In Memoriam: Sir Joseph Hotung {{!}} Mansfield College |url=https://www.mansfield.ox.ac.uk/news/memoriam-sir-joseph-hotung |access-date=29 March 2022|website=mansfield.ox.ac.uk}} He also served as a council member of the University of Hong Kong and a member of the governing board of SOAS University of London.{{Cite web |title=Sir Joseph Hotung - Honorary Fellow of SOAS, University of London |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/fellows/sir-joseph-hotung/ |access-date=29 March 2022 |website=soas.ac.uk |language=en |archive-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617042848/https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/fellows/sir-joseph-hotung/ |url-status=dead }}
Art Collector
File:Glazed dragon tiles at the British Museum.jpg donated to the British Museum by Sir Joseph Hotung in 2006]]
Hotung was an avid collector of Chinese art, including Chinese jades, porcelain, bronzes, and furniture, as well as European paintings by the likes of Frans Hals, Manet and Turner, French silver and English furniture.{{Cite web |title=Sir Joseph Hotung (1930–2021) |url=https://www.orientations.com.hk/highlights/sir-joseph-hotung-19302021 |access-date=29 March 2022|website=Orientations |language=en-US}} He bequeathed his personal collection of 246 Chinese jades, 15 examples of early blue-and-white porcelain from the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and other antiquities from China worth an estimated £123m to the British Museum after his death in 2022.[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG58826 British Museum Collection][https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/08/21/british-museum-reveals-that-2022-bequest-from-tycoon-and-former-trustee-was-worth-%C2%A3123m Art Newspaper]
A patron of the arts, he was the first chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the British Museum, where he served as a trustee from 1994 to 2004.{{Cite web |date=21 March 1996 |title=Hands-on Hotung |url=https://www.scmp.com/article/153558/hands-hotung |access-date=29 March 2022|website=South China Morning Post |language=en}} He also paid for the renovation of the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery for China and South Asia (twice), the Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies, which includes the Sir Percival David Collection of Chinese ceramics, and the Sir Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery at the British Museum.{{Cite web |title=China and South Asia |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/galleries/china-and-south-asia |access-date=29 March 2022|website=The British Museum |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=British Museum's Revamped Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery Offers a Fresh Perspective on South Asian Buddhist Art |url=https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/british-museums-revamped-sir-joseph-hotung-gallery-offers-a-fresh-perspective-on-south-asian-buddhist-art/ |access-date=29 March 2022|website=Buddhistdoor Global |language=en-US}}
Honours
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993. He received honorary degrees from St George's, University of London,{{Cite web |title=Obituary: Sir Joseph Hotung (1930-2021) |url=https://www.sgul.ac.uk/news/obituary-sir-joseph-hotung-1930-2021 |access-date=29 March 2022 |website=sgul.ac.uk |language=en-GB}} University of Hong Kong,{{Cite web |title=Sir Joseph HOTUNG - Citation - Citations - HKU Honorary Graduates|url=https://www4.hku.hk/hongrads/citations/honorary-degree-of-doctor-of-letters-joseph-hotung-sir-joseph-hotung |access-date=29 March 2022|website=www4.hku.hk |language=en}} and the University of London.
Personal life
Hotung died in London on 16 December 2021, aged 91. He had 4 children from a previous marriage to Mary McGinley Hotung.{{Cite news |title=Sir Joseph Hotung obituary |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/sir-joseph-hotung-obituary-vrgbh95wl |access-date=29 March 2022|issn=0140-0460}}{{Cite news |date=14 September 1986 |title=Ann Hotung Has Wedding |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/14/style/ann-hotung-has-wedding.html |access-date=29 March 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}