Famed Taiwan art museum readies to reopen

TAIPEI, Jan 17 (Reuters) The world's leading Chinese art museum, a palatial compound in Taiwan, will reopen next month with more display space for imperial art and amenities aimed at luring an expected surge in visitors from long-time rival China.

After almost two years of remodelling, the National Palace Museum in Taipei will open on February 8 its entire 24,000 square metres of exhibit halls that now include more snacking areas, a new lobby and a school, Director Lin Mun-lee told Reuters.

The museum is known for its unique stash of 654,500 imperial art treasures brought to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 to keep them away from the Communists.

Because more people look at old art more often if it's in a modern setting, the museum remodelled almost every hall, a spokeswoman said. The exterior, which resembles imperial palaces within Beijing's Forbidden City, was not changed.

''This museum has been modernised,'' Lin said. ''A museum is not just to provide something for everyone to appreciate, it also creates a kind of lifestyle.'' The museum will now have four coffeeshops and a Taiwan teahouse to make the isolated hillside complex of three buildings more comfortable, Lin said. A children's exhibit and an art workshop should open about six months later, she said.

The growth in display space, for a total of 9,600 square metres, will let the museum show more pieces at one time. It can now show only 3,000 items at once.

New exhibits are already in the works. The museum will get a collection from the British Museum in February, and in October it will display 100 Baroque-era pieces from a museum in Austria.

The 42-year-old venue normally exhibits treasures such as centuries-old calligraphy scrolls, Ming dynasty ceramic vases and jade seals of Qing emperors.

MODERN LOOK, ANCIENT ART Scrolls are descended over imposing white walls, while vases are shown in backlit cases in halls as dark as caverns. The museum's oldest piece goes back about 8,000 years.

Remodelling also makes the whole structure better to resist Taiwan's frequent earthquakes, Lin said.

The museum expects a surge in Chinese tourists once the Taiwan government allows more of them, up to 1,000 a day, on the island.

They now account for about 11 per cent of the foreign visitors among the museum's two million total annual visitors.

The Chinese cannot see the same art at home, and some think it was plundered by Taiwan. Lin said they should be thankful.

''They'll thank us by saying, 'In Taiwan these relics have been preserved so well and displayed so beautifully,''' Lin said.

Chinese art is all the rage with international collectors these days, with auctions of both modern and ancient artefacts achieving record sales.

Although it is not aggressively acquiring new art, the government-owned museum hopes to diversify its portfolio of paintings and pottery by asking go-betweens to work with private organisations in China, Lin said.

Because of deep national identity differences arising after the war, Taiwan and China do not formally recognise each other or hold official talks. Safe transport of Chinese art on loan is also touchy because of the political impasse.

For three months from late December, the Henan Provincial Administration of Cultural Relics in central China is lending the palace museum green glazed Song Dynasty ceramics.

Art circles in China are used to Chinese relics being seen or sold overseas and do not see the outflow as an offence to the country, said Zhang Qiuying, longtime Beijing art gallery owner.

Because Chinese tourists like souvenirs, Lin said, the museum also expanded its gift shop with them in mind. One item for sale is a huge, plush toy resembling a jade cabbage, the museum's most heavily viewed display piece.

REUTERS BDP BD0913