Amber: Baltic Gold

EVENT DESCRIPTION

The Indra and Harry Banga Gallery of the City University of Hong Kong (“CityU”) presents the new exhibition Amber: Baltic Gold.

Amber is widely known as a beautiful material, formed by fossilization of resin secreted by different plants. It sometimes also preserves insects and vertebrates, offering rare clues about the evolution of species millions of years ago. Amber also carries significant cultural meaning; over the centuries and across different cultures, it has been seen as a scarce and mysterious material, possessing medicinal and even magical properties. The most famous type of amber comes from the Baltic region (Baltic Amber). Already 3,000 years ago amber was highly valued, and quickly began to be traded across southern Europe and into Asia. In medieval and early modern Europe workshops developed focused exclusively on carving amber. The wars of religion between Protestants and Catholics in the sixteenth century exacerbated the competition for amber. However, its production and commercialization in the Baltic regions were tightly controlled by a German semi-religious, semi-military association, which forbade locals from harvesting and selling it. This association made a fortune by supplying amber made into devotional objects as well as into sumptuous art pieces for the royal courts of Europe. In Asia, amber entered China along the Silk Road. The Qidan court of the Liao dynasty had a special love of amber, and their taste influenced that of later the Ming and Qing noblemen. Amber was so precious that only the emperor and his family were allowed to wear it. The precious amber treasures from these two dynasties must have originally been royal possessions.

The Indra and Harry Banga Gallery joins hands with the National History Museum of Latvia; the Latvian National Museum of Art; Association Tresors de Ferveur; the Fondation Fourviere–Musee d’art religieux; the Mengdiexuan Collection; the Liang Yi Museum; and other private collectors, designers and artists to present 240 impressive amber artworks. Enriched with visual and audio presentations and cinematic installations, the exhibition reveals the remarkable role played by amber over the last 3,000 years in areas ranging from culture and art to politics and religion.