London
One of the biggest names in the field of Oriental art, multi-millionaire T.T. Tsui, has family connections with a Chinese, State-run armaments company. According to a report in the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, lawyers acting for the Hong Kong government are currently deciding whether to prosecute Rex International Development, founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Mr Tsui and the China Northern Industrial Corporation (known as Norinco), a huge arms manufacturing conglomerate. According to the British newspaper, Rex International has acted as a brokerage for Norinco’s international activities, including sales to the Middle East and the supply of steel pipes to Iran. Such pipes are suitable for use in chemical or explosive arms manufacturing processes. While Mr Tsui sold his shares in Rex in 1989, his brother is still a board director. T.T. Tsui had his own museum in Hong Kong (see p.1), housing part of his collection, but a large amount of this has recently been sold at Christie’s under the name of the Jingguantang Collection, revealed by The Art Newspaper, No.68, March 1997, p.31 to be Mr Tsui’s. The first part, mainly porcelains and jades, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in November 1996 for around £10 million. Part II, an eclectic mixture of archaic pieces, later ceramics, glass and furniture, was sold in New York on 20 March for $6.2 million.