[2] He spent his youth in Italy, where his great uncle had started a family business in Milan, an art gallery, in 1923.
[3] He opened a London office with his late father in 1960, originally buying for the family's antiques business in Milan.
[4] In 1972 he opened a gallery at Foxglove House, Piccadilly, with an inaugural exhibition of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art.
He was a Trustee of the Asia House Trust (London), 2000–2007, an advisor to the board of Bard Graduate Center in New York, 2000 to 2015, and an advisor to the Royal Academy of Art for the exhibitions 100 Masterpieces of Imperial Chinese Ceramics from the Au Bak Ling Collection (1998) and Return of the Buddha, The Qingzhou Discoveries (2002).
[11] In 1984, the New York Times reported that he had recently sold two netsuke, including a horse by Masanoa of Kyoto to a collector for a total of $400,000.