China agrees to lend art to museum in Taiwan
The Palace Museum in Beijing has agreed to lend works of art to the National Palace Museum in Taipei for an exhibition next autumn, temporarily bringing together a small part of China's imperial collection for the first time in 60 years, both museums said on Monday.
The art works — mainly paintings of Emperor Yongzheng, an 18th century ruler of China, and his concubines — are part of China's immense imperial art collection, long divided by strife. The Nationalists took nearly a quarter of the collection, including most of the best works, when they lost China's civil war to the Communists in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan.
More than three-fifths of the imperial collection is at the Palace Museum in Beijing and the remainder is in storage in Nanjing.
There was some disagreement on Monday over how many pieces of art would be lent. The National Palace Museum said that at least 29 works and possibly more would be coming. A spokesman for the Palace Museum in Beijing said that a decision had been made to lend works to the Taipei museum, but no agreement had been reached on the number.
State-run media in Beijing, which usually serve as carefully orchestrated mouthpieces for government policy on Taiwan in particular, could not agree on Monday on the number of works that the Beijing authorities would allow to be shipped to Taipei. The official China Daily newspaper said that 29 pieces would be lent while the official Xinhua news agency said that 17 works would be included...
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The art works — mainly paintings of Emperor Yongzheng, an 18th century ruler of China, and his concubines — are part of China's immense imperial art collection, long divided by strife. The Nationalists took nearly a quarter of the collection, including most of the best works, when they lost China's civil war to the Communists in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan.
More than three-fifths of the imperial collection is at the Palace Museum in Beijing and the remainder is in storage in Nanjing.
There was some disagreement on Monday over how many pieces of art would be lent. The National Palace Museum said that at least 29 works and possibly more would be coming. A spokesman for the Palace Museum in Beijing said that a decision had been made to lend works to the Taipei museum, but no agreement had been reached on the number.
State-run media in Beijing, which usually serve as carefully orchestrated mouthpieces for government policy on Taiwan in particular, could not agree on Monday on the number of works that the Beijing authorities would allow to be shipped to Taipei. The official China Daily newspaper said that 29 pieces would be lent while the official Xinhua news agency said that 17 works would be included...