As Police Tear-Gassed Protesters Outside Its Doors, the Hong Kong Museum of Art Was Forced to Shut Down Its Grand Reopening

As the protests rage on in Hong Kong, police used teargas on
demonstrators gathered outside of the Hong Kong Museum of Art yesterday. The
clash between law enforcement and protesters look place just one
day after the museum’s reopening following a four-year HK$934
million ($119 million) expansion project.

The rally in the city’s Tsim Sha Tsui district had been approved
ahead of time by the police, and drew tens of thousands of peaceful
protesters, according to the Art Newspaper. But
just an hour into what was supposed to be a three-hour
demonstration, police began firing teargas into the crowds and
announced that anyone who refused to disperse could be arrested for
“illegal assembly.”

Ahead of the clash between the police and the protesters, which
included children and the elderly, the government-run museum posted
a notice that it would be closing early. It is unclear whether the
institution may have allowed people fleeing the teargas to seek
shelter inside.

The Anti-Extradition Law
Amendment Bill movement has a list of five demands, chief
among them the withdrawal of legislation allowing China to
extradite fugitives. As protests escalate, the situation
potentially threatens both visitors to the museum and its
artworks.

The inaugural exhibitions include “A Sense of Place: From
Turner to Hockney,” which features loans of 70 works from
London’s Tate Modern. Hong Kong artists were also
invited to respond to three centuries of British landscape
painting, including works by J.M.W. Turner and David Hockney.

“We have and will continue to closely monitor the situation in
Hong Kong in dialogue with colleagues at the Hong Kong Museum of
Art to ensure the safety of staff and the collection,” Cecily
Carbone, the Tate’s press officer, told Artnet News in an email
ahead of the exhibition’s opening. Judith Nesbitt, the
director of national and international partnerships at Tate, and
exhibition curator Anne Lyles were both on the ground in Hong Kong
for the opening.

Other institutions that have been affected by the ongoing unrest
include the Hong Kong Museum of
History, which has suspended its current exhibition “Glistening Treasures in the
Dust – Ancient Artefacts of Afghanistan.” The museum is located
across the street from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where a
police siege began on November 17, and saw protesters set fire to
the campus.

Lévy Gorvy’s new Hong Kong gallery, which opened earlier this
year, has postponed its exhibition of Chinese artist Tu Hongtao,
originally set to open November 22. A representative of the gallery
told Artnet News that the space is currently closed to the public,
but open for private viewings.

Also in limbo is Hauser & Wirth’s planned Hong Kong outing of
photographer Annie Leibovitz, according to the Financial
Times. The organizers of Art Basel Hong Kong have denied
rumors that the annual art fair is considering relocating its 2020
fair, which is scheduled to open in Hong
Kong on March 19.

The post As Police Tear-Gassed Protesters Outside Its Doors,
the Hong Kong Museum of Art Was Forced to Shut Down Its Grand
Reopening appeared first on artnet News.