The National Palace Museum, holder of the world’s largest collection of Chinese artifacts, plans to hold an exhibition in the UK and Japan, the museum said yesterday.
“We are negotiating with the British Museum for an exchange of exhibitions — we will hold an exhibition of Chinese treasures at the British Museum and they will display their collection of Greek sculptures at the National Palace Museum,” a museum press officer said.
“The negotiations are ongoing. We don’t know when the exhibitions can be held, because even after we have reached an agreement, we have to wait till both museums have the space to hold the exhibitions,” she said, asking not to be named.
The museum is also seeking to hold an exhibition in Japan.
“Many Japanese museums have invited us to hold an exhibition in Japan, but the obstacle is that Japan does not have the Law of Guaranteed Return, which ensures that after the exhibition, our exhibits will be returned to Taiwan and not be seized by China,” she said.
“We hope Japan can either enact the Law of the Guaranteed Return or issue a statement, with legal effect, to pledge that our exhibits will be returned to Taiwan after the exhibition,” the press officer said.
Some 2.6 million Taiwanese and foreigners visit the National Palace Museum each year. Half are Japanese, who are often particularly interested in Chinese calligraphy.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government took the best artifacts from the Palace Museum in Beijing and a museum in Nanjing — a total of 650,000 pieces — and brought them to Taipei when it lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Since then, the artifacts have been preserved at the National Palace Museum and are put on display by rotation.
China considers the artworks the heritage of China, and fearing that Beijing might impound the artifacts through its diplomatic ties with other countries, Taiwan has allowed the National Palace Museum to send its treasures abroad on only a few occasions.
In February, the museum held an exhibition in Austria following two years of negotiations to convince Vienna to sign the Law of Guaranteed Return.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS