A most unexpected evening

We had a family outing.  It started as a company-sponsored buffet and ended quite unexpectedly as an awesome art event.  The buffet was in a private club.  Not one I’m a member of, but one that my wife’s company had booked for the occasion.

My son went wandering and exploring after the meal, and came back full of excitement to drag me away.  He took me round an atrium balcony, past some modern sculptures, to a doorway into a darkened room.  Inside, there was an amazing stainless-steel head of a Buddha formed in Chinese seal-script.  That’s hard to understand, so here is some of what we saw:
(All the pictures here were made with an old iPhone without flash so they’re not great.)
It was, I suppose, about 5 feet from top to bottom.

Then I became aware of gentle background Buddhist chanting of a type I’ve heard in temples in mainland China, and looked around in the gloom that my eyes were becoming adjusted to.  There, around the walls in glass cases, were ancient carvings of Buddhas – the oldest I saw was labelled as from about 1,600 years ago.

On the way to this we had seen many modern sculptures and works of art.  Browsing on the way back I was stunned to find what appeared to be an original Picasso, a Dali, a Miro and a Dufy.  These were in less-than-optimal lighting and  all locked in glass cabinets.

My first thought was that they were copies, but a member of staff confirmed that the founder of the club – a very rich Taiwanese – had bought all of these and that they were originals from his collection.  Then he pointed out another corner where there was a van Gogh, a Matisse, a Lowry, a small Warhol sketch, a Monet, a Chagall and a Pisarro.There were works by Chinese artists as well – some that I had seen publicised during past auctions, some fine modern works, and the usual calligraphy.

Being so unexpected, it was rather overwhelming and certainly exciting.

Then my son made another discovery that he couldn’t wait to show me – a fantasy library.  Fantasy for me anyway, and it must be a family thing because he loves books, and my daughter has a large book collection.
This is somewhere that, if I had time and right of access, I could spend weeks.

Roy