Sotheby's Ching "In the Frame"

Hong Kong business magazine, the Standard, profiles Sotheby’s Asian chief Kevin Ching and his possessions:

Beside the sofa in Ching’s living room is one of many objects of his desire –an imposing scholars’ rock on a marble stand. Eager to share the joy of his possession, he burns incense in a hollow of this beautiful abstract form. The amorphous object has a character of its own. [ . . . ]

Another piece he loves is in his office is a Ming period rock crystal brush stand he acquired 20 years ago during his days as a young lawyer.

Ching, once a lawyer at Johnson Stokes & Master (“my parents wanted me to be a doctor but I was bad in maths and sciences”) tells us the scholars’ rock helps elevate him onto another realm in times of solitude. [ . . . ]

Nearby sits a collection of John Donne’s poems – elegies, sonnets, satires, verse letters. The poet, like him, a creative mind who studied law.

At JSM, Ching specialized in banking, shipping, commercial law, investments in China, Sino-foreign joint ventures and arbitration. Among other things, he studied air and space law. [ . . . ]

For decades now, Ching, who turns 53 soon, has been gathering works of art that he admits give him “immense pleasure.”

His home is a repository of artefacts – the dining room, bedroom, living room and study crowded with art works, poems he composed, photographs he captured, paintings by his children Nicole and Nicholas, as well as cherished possessions of childhood.

Some are whimsical or provocative, while others induce insouciance.

Also a passionate jade collector, Ching has embraced the physical and spiritual properties of jadeite, as well as its history and heritage. He has committed years to collecting exquisite jade pieces – considered a gentlemanly pursuit in ancient China.

He is modest about his collection, 15-20 pieces of which were displayed at The Hong Kong Museum of Art for nearly six years until last year.

Ching is also one the youngest members of the Min Chiu society, “probably the most prestigious private club for collectors of Chinese ceramics, works of art and paintings.” He declares he possesses “the smallest collection.”