Zita Ong, Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, Pierre Lamunière and Barrie Goodridge

Two pairs of museum-quality artworks by two Western Masters were finally unveiled on May 12 at a private event, A Masterpiece Revelation, hosted by Opteres and Hong Kong Tatler, ending weeks of intense speculation. Two hundred guests – Asia’s most established art collectors among them, and aficionados who flew in from California and London – gathered at ICC’s Sky 100 and witnessed the presentation of the following works, whose collective value is in excess of US$100 million: Joan Miró’s Self-portrait (1917) and Tuilerie à Montroig (1918), and René Magritte’s Le genre nocturne (1928) and L’empire des luminières I (1949). These works have been off the market for more than three decades.

Among those present were some of the region’s most notable art collectors and connoisseurs, including China’s Lin Ning (wife of China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin), Hong Kong’s Yana Peel, Taiwan’s Ellie Lai, and Singapore’s Kaori Zage. Also present were Max and Monique Burger, as well as Uli and Rita Sigg, the Swiss collectors who recently donated their world-class collection of contemporary Chinese art to Hong Kong’s M+ Museum.
 
The momentous unveiling is set to become one of the outstanding events of Hong Kong’s annual Art Week. The evening commenced with an elegant sunset reception, where guests mingled and sampled award-winning wines from Cossia Castiglioni’s biodynamic Tuscan winery, Querciabella, and innovative vegan canapés from acclaimed US celebrity chef Matthew Kenney, who flew in especially for the event. Kenney's kelp noodles with black pepper and chanterelles proved to be a runaway hit that evening, along with the coconut samosas served in delicate bamboo steamers. Vintages of the excellent wines included the Batàr 2001, 2007 and 2011, plus the Camartina 2000, 2004 and 2010; guests were gifted special 1999 vintages of the Camartina as a memorable keepsake. Live musical interludes came courtesy of 12 English singers – all soloists in their own right – who came together especially for the occasion. The pieces performed were all written by J S Bach. 

'gallery right' 'gallery right'
'gallery right' 'gallery right'
Photo 1 of 50 Zita Ong, Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, Pierre Lamunière and Barrie Goodridge
Photo 2 of 50 Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni
Photo 3 of 50 Uli Sigg and Rita Sigg
Photo 4 of 50 Jerry Tan
Photo 5 of 50 Stephanie Cuadra
Photo 6 of 50 Lumen Kinoshita, Allan Murray and Carol Murray
Photo 7 of 50 Harriet Tung
Photo 8 of 50 Michele Li
Photo 9 of 50 Moses Tsang
Photo 10 of 50 Yana Peel
Photo 11 of 50 Rita Sigg
Photo 12 of 50 Canapés prepared by Chef Matthew Kenney
Photo 13 of 50 Boby Chan, Shirley Chan and Angel Chan
Photo 14 of 50
Photo 15 of 50 Yolanda Choy-Tang and Hamilton Tang
Photo 16 of 50 Wines from Tuscan estate Querciabella
Photo 17 of 50 Maya Lin and Rendy Ng
Photo 18 of 50 Joan Miró's Self-portrait (1917)
Photo 19 of 50 Joan Miró’s Tuilerie à Montroig (1918) and Self-portrait (1917)
Photo 20 of 50 René Magritte's L’empire des luminières I (1949) and Le genre nocturne (1928)
Photo 21 of 50 Michele Li and Didier Li
Photo 22 of 50 Jay Parmanand
Photo 23 of 50 Samson Sun
Photo 24 of 50 John Ying and Andrew Yuen
Photo 25 of 50 Betty Sun and Dennis Sun
Photo 26 of 50 Lumen Kinoshita and Andrew Yuen
Photo 27 of 50 Matthew Lam and Lianne Lam
Photo 28 of 50 Moses Tsang and Angela Tsang
Photo 29 of 50 KC Chow and Amy Chow
Photo 30 of 50 Carmen Lee and Samuel Lee
Photo 31 of 50 Anastasia Chunilal
Photo 32 of 50 Jane Ho and Olivia Ho
Photo 33 of 50 Carol Murray and Allan Murray
Photo 34 of 50 Benjamin Vuchot and Claire Hsu-Vuchot
Photo 35 of 50 Helen Fong
Photo 36 of 50 Ming Ho-Tang
Photo 37 of 50 Angela Adams and Ian Lowe
Photo 38 of 50 Yolanda Choy-Tang
Photo 39 of 50 Marcus Wong and Raymond Chan
Photo 40 of 50 Yumi Honda
Photo 41 of 50 Stefan Rihs, Monique Burger and Max Burger
Photo 42 of 50 Mariko Lee and Benjamin Lee
Photo 43 of 50 Winnie Chan and Andrew Tan
Photo 44 of 50 Harriet Tung
Photo 45 of 50 Denise Lo
Photo 46 of 50 Sudesh Sani, Amishi Sani, Vishal Sani and Karishma Sani
Photo 47 of 50 Alex Fong and Lelia Chow
Photo 48 of 50 Chef Matthew Kenney
Photo 49 of 50 Alex Fong
Photo 50 of 50 Cristina Ventura and Raymond Chan