Coveted Chinese exhibition opens in Denmark

On October 4, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe and His Royal Highness Prince Henrik will open a remarkable exhibition in the Royal Reception Rooms at Christiansborg Palace. The Royal Silver Vault has achieved the feat of assembling an exhibition on the centuries of cooperation between Denmark and China. Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik themselves have very generously made available objects from their private collection for the exhibition.

300 unique art objects from China have been brought to Denmark through the agency of the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City, and these will be exhibited alongside a range of Danish objects, some of which have been loaned by Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik. The items from the royal couple’s collection have never previously been on public display.

“It is remarkable that we have succeeded in getting the Chinese exhibits to Denmark. The [Danish] National Museum asked permission to give this exhibition, and the reply was that they were welcome to do so, if they paid the exhibition fee of 11 million Danish crowns,” explains Ole Villumsen Krog, director of the Royal Silver Vault.

“I later travelled to China, where among those I met was the Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture. As a result, the Royal Silver Vault succeeded in obtaining permission to hold the exhibition in Denmark without the fee. We are extremely grateful for this. Likewise, the Queen and Prince Consort have been very generous in making private objects available, and all of this means that this exhibition will be the largest in the history of the Royal Silver Vault,” explains Ole Villumsen Krog.

680-page catalogue

To accompany the exhibition, an exhibition catalogue has been produced. It too is the largest in the history of the Royal Silver Vault. The catalogue’s 680 pages contain not only descriptions of the exhibits, but also 18 articles by leading Chinese, European and American scholars of Chinese history and culture.

“Our exhibition catalogues are very substantial books rich in content, and they are highly prized for educational purposes throughout Europe. They are a product of which we are very proud,” says Ole Villumsen Krog.

The Royal Silver Vault has been creating exhibitions and catalogues of this kind for the past 10-15 years. But this is the first time it has contracted out its project management: to Lingtech, a company specialising in translations and inter-cultural collaboration.

“Lingtech’s work has been of considerable importance – they have provided us with project management and expertise, and they have coordinated contacts with translators. This has been an eighteen-month process, and they have managed it well,” says Ole Villumsen Krog.

“We are very proud of this assignment. It’s been a large and very exciting job to manage the project, involving as it has the translation between three languages of 350,000 words, but it’s been fun and challenging, and it is a job which will be of great significance to us,” says Lingtech director Birgit Pichat.

The exhibition will be opened on October 4 at 2.30 pm by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe and His Royal Highness Prince Henrik at Christiansborg Palace. The exhibition is open to the public from October 5 up to and including December 10. It is open from 10 am to 4 pm every day of the week, except Mondays, when opening hours are 2 pm – 8 pm.

For further information about the exhibition, group bookings, guided tours in all languages: email: nlarssen@worldonline.dk or telephone (+45) 40 40 83 00.

For further information about Lingtech: telephone (+45) 33 25 71 71, director Birgit Pichat or project manager Lea Jørgensen.