Sunday, January 25, 2009

Mainland welcomes co-op of Beijing, Taipei's Palace museums

Mainland welcomes co-op of Beijing, Taipei's Palace museums
www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-21 18:52:49

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A mainland official Wednesday
welcomed discussions between Beijing's Palace Museum and Taipei's
"National Palace Museum" regarding joint exhibitions.

"We are glad to see the two museums to work together and improve
exchanges," said Yang Yi, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office
spokesman, at a press conference.

Taipei's "National Palace Museum" is known for its rich
collection taken from Beijing's former Imperial Palace, or the
Forbidden City, in 1949 at the end of China's civil war.

Then Kuomintang (KMT) government shipped 2,972 boxes of about
600,000 items from Beijing to Taipei, most of which were very valuable.

The two museums have never worked together, but in 1992 they
both collaborated with a Hong Kong-based publisher on the book, "The
Best of National Treasures" about their collections.

Beijing's Palace Museum had agreed to lend 17 items to Taipei
for a special exhibition about Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) of the
Qing Dynasty, Fung Ming-chu, deputy director of Taipei's "National
Palace Museum", told Xinhua in Taipei earlier this month.

They will be displayed with 148 other items in Taipei in October.

"This is the first reunion of the collections since they were
kept under the same roof 60 years ago," Fung said.

Chou Kung-shin, the Taipei museum director, would visit the
Palace Museum in Beijing for the first time next month and was
expecting his Beijing counterpart, Zheng Xinmiao, to visit Taipei in
March, she said.

The two sides had put forward several proposals for joint
exhibitions, she said. "I think we have great potential of
cooperation. For instance, we hope to talk about cooperation in
restoring cultural relics."
Editor: Zhang Xiang

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