Antique Chinese ceramics to go on display at Fort St Angelo

The Magisterial Palace at Fort St Angelo will be the venue of an exhibition of antique Chinese ceramics opening today.

It will be held under the distinguished patronage of President Eddie Fenech Adami and the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Frà Matthew Festing.

The exhibition is being organised by SMOM - Fort St Angelo and dedicated to the memory of the late Grand Master Frà Andrew Bertie.

Over 250 different pieces, totalling about 400 items, mostly of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing dynasty, and dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, will be on display, together with older pieces from the Ming dynasty and more recent examples from the 19th century.

Apart from five magnificent vases from the National Collection of Malta, all the exhibits come from the order's collection in Rome or private collections in Malta and have never been put on public viewing before.

The choice of subject matter was determined by the late Grand Master's interest in oriental studies, by the new wave of Chinamania which spread throughout Europe during the last 15 years and by the firm belief of the order's Knight Resident at Fort St Angelo that the promotion of knowledge and appreciation of the artistic heritage of civilisations so different from the Western world's helps knock down barriers between peoples and break chains of prejudice and diffidence by which they are often bound.

The exhibition will be open to the public every day between today and July 20, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and 4 and 8 p.m.