The British Museum has been gifted one of the world's most prodigious collections of Chinese ceramics, worth £1 billion ($1.27 billion), in what is likely the highest-value donation of art ever received by a UK museum.

The British Museum said on Wednesday it would receive 1,700 pieces of world-renowned Chinese ceramics worth around 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion), in the largest donation in its nearly 300-year history.

The British Museum is to receive the highest-value gift in UK museum history as it acquires £1 billion worth of Chinese ceramics. Trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation are to donate 1,700 pieces to the London museum, based in the city’s Bloomsbury area.

The British Museum (BM) has boosted its Chinese art holdings after receiving a private collection of 1,700 ceramic items from the trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation. The museum described the gift as “the highest value object donation in UK museum history with the 1,700 pieces estimated at around £1bn”.

The 1,700 pieces of world-renowned Chinese ceramics constitute the largest donation in the British Museum’s nearly 300-year history.

Sir Percival David’s collection, amassed in the early 1900s, includes prized vases and wine cups. “You simply couldn’t build up a collection like this today,” one expert said.

The British Museum is to be given Chinese ceramics worth £1bn in what is believed to be the highest-value gift received by a UK museum. The addition of the items from the Sir Percival David Foundation will also make the museum's stock of the antiques one of the most important outside of the Chinese-speaking world.

The official donation of the entire Sir Percival David Foundation is worth an estimated £1 billion. View on euronews