Museum steps in to save iconic neon cow

In vibrant orange, green and white, the large neon-lit sign of an Angus cow has pointed to Sammy's Kitchen steakhouse in Sai Ying Pun for more than three decades. Even so, the neon cow seemed set to disappear from its spot on Queen's Road West within weeks - a casualty of the government crackdown on illegal structures over the past couple of years.

But now greener pastures await. The neon cow will likely find new life in the permanent collection of M+, the museum of visual art in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Restaurant founder, Sammy Yip, 83, was contacting removal companies when the curator of design and architecture at M+, Aric Chen, got in touch with Yip's daughter, Iry.

The upshot is that Chen, the Yip family and Buildings Department representatives are scheduled to meet shortly to negotiate the museum's acquisition of the sign.

"I'd prefer to keep the cow here," the elder Yip says. "But if a museum will take the sign, that's better than destroying it."

His neon troubles began in 2010 when the Buildings Department first issued a removal notice stating that the sign was an illegal structure. Engineering inspection findings and other submissions failed to change officials' minds, and the department issued an ultimatum in March this year warning that failure to take down the sign would result in a HK$200,000 fine, one year in jail, and an additional fine of HK$20,000 for every day of non-compliance.