Tullia Fraser - Durham University

Tullia Fraser FSAScot

Assistant Curator (Huang Kam Chak Yee Collection), Oriental Museum

Telephone: +44(0)191 3345701

Overview

Tullia Fraser is the Assistant Curator appointed towards the research and display of the Huang Kam Chak Yee Collection. She is committed to promoting Mrs Huang’s collection to all. Tullia’s research focuses on the provenance of Chinese objects in Scotland, the histories of Chinese collections in Britain, Chinese lacquerware and furniture.

Biography

Tullia holds a BA (Hons) Archaeology and MA Museum and Artefact Studies from Durham University. She attained her PhD at the University of Glasgow, National Museums Scotland, and Durham University, investigating the histories and provenances of Scotland’s Chinese Collections, 1862–1946 with object-led approaches. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Tullia’s career began with both unpaid and paid roles in the Durham County Record Office, Oriental Museum, and Royal Collection Trust. Her role at Liang Yi Museum (Hong Kong) included provenance research into its collection of Chinese furniture. As part of her tenure at the University Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong, she curated an exhibition on European Gothic art, digitised key objects in UMAG’s permanent Chinese collections, and supported teaching and supervision. She also led a project team on documenting the museum’s substantial holdings of ‘orphaned’ archaeological finds, identifying the group as one of the earliest archaeological collections in Hong Kong. She has also translated and edited exhibition catalogues on Chinese art for various museums in the city.

While pursuing her doctorate, Tullia undertook teaching duties at the History of Art department at the University of Glasgow, focusing on Chinese art and Chinese art collecting in Scotland. In 2022, she was also a Doctoral Training Partnership Fellow in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Based in the Asia Department and Research Institute (VARINALA), she researched and published the provenance data of over 43,000 East Asian objects the museum acquired between 1852–1911. Her work at the V&A also highlighted the lesser-known dealers from whom the museum purchased East Asian objects. She further undertook a six-month placement at the Oriental Museum in 2024, where she conducted collections-based research, and a secondment research project of Chinese lacquer furniture in Raby Castle. She also assisted in the redevelopment of the permanent display of ceramics in the Malcolm MacDonald Gallery of China, such as developing a display on fakes and forgeries in changing Chinese traditions. She has shared her research widely through articles, papers and workshops given to organisations such as the Scottish Museum Federation, National Trust for Scotland, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Research interests

Provenance research into Chinese material culture
Chinese lacquerware, furniture and associated crafts
History of antiquarianism and archaeology in Hong Kong
Museums and collections histories
Colonial legacies in museums

Esteem Indicators

2026: Advisory board member, Provenance of Asian Collections Project, University College London, Victoria & Albert Museum

2026: Member, Chinese University of Hong Kong Archaeology & Cultural Heritage Academic Affiliates Network

2023: Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

Selected Publications

Authored Books

Knothe, F. & Tullia C. Fraser. High Gothic: Christian Art and Iconography of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century (哥德盛世: 十三至十四世紀的基督宗教藝術與圖像). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2021.

Articles

Fraser, Tullia C., Agnes P.Y. Sung and Benjamin Chiesa. “Connected Fragments: An Early Hong Kong Archaeological Collection”. Journal of the History of Collections 37, no. 1, (2025): 117-133. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhae025

Reviews

Fraser, Tullia C. Review of Chinese Art Objects, Collecting, and Interior Design in Twentieth-Century Britain, by Helen Glaister. Journal of the History of Collections, in press (2026).

Conference Papers

Fraser, Tullia C. 'Collecting and Transforming Chinese Lacquer in Scotland in the Early Twentieth Century'. Paper, The 2025 Annual Conference for the Association for Art History, York, UK, 10 April 2025.

Fraser, Tullia C. 'Changing with the Times: An Astronomical Clock in the Oriental Museum, Durham University'. Paper, Grand Yaji Gathering, Communicating Time and Culture Project, Science Museum, 30 May 2024.

Fraser, Tullia C. 'Contrasting? Methodologies towards Provenance Research into East Asian Objects'. Paper, The Provenance of Asian Art: Symposium and Workshop, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation’s Museum of Asian Art and Central Archives, Washington DC, 2 November 2023.

Talks and Workshops

Fraser, Tullia C. ‘Trade Secrets: How Chinese Objects Ended Up in Scottish Museums in the Early 20th Century’. Public talk, the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 14 January 2026.

Fraser, Tullia C. 'Booked and Busy—Syncretic Methodologies Towards Provenance Research into East Asian Objects'. Public talk, V&A Provenance Research Seminar Series, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 6 June 2023.

Fraser, Tullia C. 'Exploring Entwined Histories through Chinese Material Culture in Scottish Museums'. Workshop, Scottish Museums Federation Conference 2023: Seeing the Bigger Picture, Glasgow, 15 May 2023.

Web articles

Fraser, Tullia C., ‘Dealing and Dealers: The East Asia Collection’, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2023. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/dealing-and-dealers-the-east-asia-collection/

Fraser, Tullia C., ‘Searching for Dealers in the V&A’s East Asia Collection’, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2023. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/projects/searching-for-dealers-in-the-vas-east-asia-collection