With history comes legend, but the "Unlucky Mummy" story is apocryphal. Supposedly, the case contained the remains of the Princess of Amen-Ra and was bought by an Englishman in the 1890s. The curse of the mummy killed him and many other people and subsequently watchmen at the British Museum refused to go near it. Eventually, it was sold to an American who went down with the Titanic. Actually, the story was a newspaper hoax and the mummy never left the British Museum … until now.
Back to reality, the Statuette of Hermes is an outstanding example of classical art, which even now informs our idea of the perfect body. History would not be complete without the rise and fall of civilizations and the section on Rome has an impressive selection of treasures. Though global in its scope the exhibition is Eurocentric. This is to be expected. After all, when the British Museum was founded in 1753 Britain was developing its own empire and saw the world in its own image.
As such, the sections that cover India and Japan are not the strongest parts of the exhibition with a headless Indian goddess and paintings from the Edo period. These familiar items reinforce stereotypical views of the countries' cultures. This is not a criticism, however, since many visitors would be disappointed if these iconic objects held by the British Museum were not on view.
The Islamic (in particular) African, Pacific and American sections are more illuminating, since they include objects that have not had such popular public exposure. Labeling of the works is in Chinese and English and there are descriptive introductions to the various sections of the exhibition that frame the works well. Best of all, you won't get a better chance to get up close to history, as many items are not behind glass and have not been fenced off.
Introducing the exhibition, NPM Director Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) said it was designed to celebrate the end of renovations to the museum that opened in a Taipei suburb, 1965. The original National Palace Museum was founded 1925, in Beijing, but the collection dates as far back as the Sung Dynasty (960 AD to 1279) when the Emperor Taizong (太宗) started hoarding the finest examples of Chinese art.
In addition to earthquake proofing the main gallery areas, Lin said the new exhibition spaces, digital learning areas, multimedia screening room and children's learning area would make NPM more than just a repository for history, but also a place where education and socializing would take place.
Three "Grand View" exhibits set up for the reopening complement the permanent displays and will run until the end of March. The grand view includes Ju Ware from the Northern Sung Dynasty, Painting and Calligraphy of the Northern Sung and Sung Dynasty Rare Books.
Additionally, NPM has set out a weeklong series of outdoor concerts and activities in the museum's front plaza. An arts fun fair inspired by Sung dynasty lifestyles will feature handicrafts from local artists. On Friday, there will be a performance (4:30pm onward) by Ming Hwa Yuan Taiwanese Opera troupe, the Ju Percussion Group will play on Feb. 10 and U-Theatre is on Feb. 11.
RSS