George Salting (15 August 1835 – 12 December 1909) was an Colony of New South Wales-born British art collector.
He had inherited considerable wealth from his father; Salting collected paintings, Chinese porcelains, furniture, and many other categories of art and decorative items.
[2] Largely influenced by the connoisseur Louis Huth, Salting began collecting Chinese porcelain, developing a fine discriminating taste for it.
His collection gradually extended and included English furniture, bronzes, majolica, glass, hard stones, manuscripts, miniatures, pictures, carpets, and other items which might be found in a good museum.
[2] Salting left his entire collection of paintings, Oriental china, bronzes, and miniatures, valued at from $5,000,000 to $20,000,000, to British museums.
[5] He bequeathed his paintings to the National Gallery, London, and his prints and drawings to the British Museum as the respective trustees might select.
The Chinese pottery and porcelain belonged mostly to the later dynasties, but much of the work of the great Tang period was practically unobtainable when Salting was collecting.