VANCOUVER -- The irony doesn’t escape Robert H. N. Ho, the West Vancouver philanthropist who has been one of the world’s most active voices in promoting appreciation of Chinese and Buddhist art around the world.

Ho, through his Hong Kong-based Foundation, is sponsoring one of the most ambitious exhibitions of Chinese Buddhist art in North America. But while the media teaser was in Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel on Tuesday, the exhibit will be at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, 2,000 kilometres away.

Last fall, the Metro resident and his staff promoted in Vancouver a major exhibit of Taipei’s National Palace Museum — to open in San Francisco in June.

Despite Ho’s sponsoring of several large scale exhibitions and other event in recent years, only one landed in Vancouver — the 2014 Forbidden City show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. And Beijing’s National Palace Museum has already expressed interest in setting up a more permanent collection of rotating artifacts in Vancouver

“I’m ashamed that, this being my hometown, all the exhibits I’ve worked on are elsewhere,” said Ho, who has been pushing governments here for the past three years to build a Vancouver museum dedicated to Chinese art. Without such a museum, world-class exhibits will not land here.

“We do things all over the world, in Europe, in Asia, in the United States, even elsewhere in Canada. But not in Vancouver.”

Ho said he and his partners are not asking for money; they have donors lined up already to pay for construction. The roadblock, he said, is land.

He said he expects to hear back from the province soon on land availability in Vancouver. “If the answer is positive, we’ll get cracking right away. What we don’t want is any stalling; we’d like a yes or a no.”

The Vancouver Gallery wants to built a new $350-million gallery that would include an Asian art wing. VAG is fundraising for the project.

Ho said his preference is for a separate, independent institution because of the size of the collections that would be coming.

“How many countries are there in Asia?” he said. “In other words, how often can Chinese art be exhibited (at VAG)? Once a year? Once every two years? Let’s list the countries: We have Japan, Korea, India and Thailand. These are countries with many artifacts and items to exhibit. If we join (VAG), how often do we get to exhibit? So we’d rather have our own space.”

The exhibit from the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang is slated to open at the Getty in May. Timothy Whalen, director of The Getty Conservation Institute, said the exhibit represents an investment of more than US$2 million and employs a dedicated staff of up to 60 people. It includes a replica of three caves from the Mogao site. It will also have the priceless Diamond Sutra text dating to AD 868, and on loan from the British Museum.

“I think it will be hugely popular,” Whalen said, noting the museum expects 500,000 visitors during the show, from May 7 to Sept. 4. “We are reaching out to people here, and we are reaching out to people elsewhere in the United States. What’s interesting about the Getty Center is that a lot of the people who come there do not come from Los Angeles. People from outside California, outside the United States … they make up a big part of our visitors group.”

Dunhuang Foundation chair Mimi Gardner Gates said, given the complexity of the artifacts and technology involved (the show also includes an immersive 3-D projection experience), a dedicated facility with the right mix of expertise was needed to create the exhibit’s holistic presentation.

Ho said beyond the cultural enrichment values of a museum in Vancouver, there’s also an economic and reputational benefit. If Vancouver were home to such a museum, he said, exhibits like Dunhuang would likely be here first before going elsewhere, boosting Vancouver’s visibility in the art world as well as drawing tourists.

“Don’t overlook the tourists,” he said, noting the Forbidden City exhibit was one of VAG’s most successful. “People came all the way from Oregon to see that exhibition. We had people from Calgary, people from Seattle. They all came to see that exhibition, and there was a queue forming around VAG for the show. It’s a draw, and other businesses will benefit.

“I think the city, the province, would be the big loser if a museum doesn’t happen. People here would be deprived of a valuable opportunity for more exposure to rare exhibits like these. My concern is that my hometown would not get this opportunity. … It would change the whole cultural fabric of the city, because suddenly, the word ‘culture’ would mean something. And it’s not just for us, but for generations to come. That’s my wish.”

chchiang@vancouversun.com