Collections: A Royal Eye for the Chinese

In 1632, Sweden's royal palace had only one painting on its walls. That was the year Queen Christina came to the throne: 22 years and 500 paintings later, she had made Stockholm into the Athens of the North. Now 300 years and 14 monarchs later, Sweden has still another royal art lover. He is Gustaf VI Adolf, 84, and he collects things Chinese.

Sixty years have passed since Gustaf made his first purchase: a hexagonal famille rose dish of the Ch'ien Lung period. In the interim he has bought about 2,400 objects for his collection which he works at with...

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