The Shanghai Museum received a donation of 45 Chinese carpets from the late German collector Martin Posth on Monday.

Martin Posth died in 2017 at the age of 75. He participated in the establishment of the Sino-German joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen from 1984 to 1988. From 1993 to 1997, he acted as president of Volkswagen Asia Pacific. The Posth family made the donation according to his will.

In 1997, he received the award of "Honorary Citizen of Shanghai" for his outstanding performance and contribution to the Sino-German relationship.

Posth was also an art historian. He loved carpet art ardently and began to collect Chinese carpets in the 1980s. He said in his will that he hoped the citizens of Shanghai have access to these rare Chinese carpets.

Posth collected carpets mainly from China's Ningxia Hui and Tibet Autonomous Regions. Some of the carpets originated from China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and other places. All of the carpets were made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

According to Chinese experts, these carpets are of great variety, including rugs for seating, meditation. The designs vary from Buddhism and Taoism to court art and folk designs.

To carry out the unfinished work of Posth, Shanghai Museum plans to publish his draft on his Chinese carpet collection. With the research of craftsmanship of the carpets underway by experts of the museum, these treasures with great values will be displayed later, said a source of the museum.