(New York, May 9, 2000) — Sir Joseph Hotung has been elected a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by James R. Houghton, the Museum's Chairman, following the May meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Sir Joseph is the chairman and managing director of Ho Hung Hing Estates Ltd., a noted property and financial investment company in Asia. Born in Shanghai and educated at St. Louis College in Tientsin, at the Catholic University of America, and by the University of London, from which he earned an LL.B., Sir Joseph has for many years been a major figure in both business and the arts in Hong Kong.
"We are honored and delighted that Sir Joseph Hotung has joined the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan," Mr. Houghton said, in announcing his election. "He has demonstrated a strong, longtime commitment to the vitality of this institution from his home halfway around the world, and we look forward to working with him even more closely in his new role as Trustee."
Sir Joseph is a Fellow for Life of the Metropolitan, and has served on the Visiting Committee of the Department of Asian Art since 1986. He is also on the visiting committee of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, serves as a trustee of the British Museum, and sits on the UK Advisory Council of Asia House. He also sits on the governing board of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, and is a former chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, a former trustee of the Asia Society in New York, and a former council member of the University of Hong Kong. He owns one of the world's foremost private collections of Chinese archaic jade.
Currently a director of the East Asian History of Science Foundation Ltd., he has held directorships in HSBC Holdings plc, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., and Hong Kong Electric Holdings, Ltd., among other enterprises. He has also served as chairman of several companies, including Guinness Investment Ltd. and Inter-Continental Capital Company Ltd.
Sir Joseph became a Knight Bachelor in 1993, and has also earned the Montblanc de la Culture Award from Hong Kong, and the National Arts Collection Fund Award, as well as an honorary doctor of letters degree from Hong Kong University.
Sir Joseph is a British citizen who resides in London.
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