[1] During his tenure as Director, Capon became recognised as a world expert in his particular field and has published several books and catalogues including Princes of jade (1974); Art and archaeology in China (1977); Qin Shihuang: terracotta warriors and horses (1982); and Tang China: vision and splendour of a golden age (1989), as well as many articles for Australian and international newspapers and professional art journals.
In September 2008 the gallery announced that it was making its biggest-ever acquisition, Paul Cézanne's landscape "Bords De La Marne", for $16.2 million to mark Capon's 30th anniversary as Director.
[7] In August 2011, Capon announced that he would be retiring as director at the end of 2011, with a Picasso exhibition in October being one of the last major events of his tenure at the AGNSW.
He became "its public face: ebullient, unorthodox, ready with the pithy quote but erudite, a Mandarin-speaking scholar of Chinese art".
[1] In September 2006 Capon replaced Walter Bugno as Chairman of Sydney Football Club, a position he held until August 2007, when he resigned owing to increasing responsibilities in his role as Director of the Art Gallery of NSW.
[10] Following his retirement Capon served as a visiting professor in the School of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales.
Although the treatment removed the cancer, the side effects resulted in his death in London, on 13 March 2019, aged 78, during what was meant to be a short visit, after a long wished-for journey to Central Asia.