The National Palace Museum in Taipei is planning to close for renovations for three years beginning at the end of 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said yesterday.
Museum Director Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) delivered a report to the Education and Culture Committee at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei and Ko said that documents given to her during a question-and-answer session by museum staff showed that the museum’s library would close on July 1 following an exhibition featuring works by artist Chang Dai-chien (張大千).
The museum’s main building is expected to close at the end of 2020 and be cleared out starting in 2021, with renovation work to take place in 2022 and 2023, she said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The museum, which houses a wide collection and attracts nearly 5 million visitors each year — the majority of them foreign tourists — has not closed since it was founded, she said.
Ko expressed concern over whether the museum had measures in place for a closure of such magnitude.
The New National Palace Museum Plan documents that the Taipei branch would undergo renovation and expansion work, Chen said, adding, however, that the document did not outline the schedule, as it was not ready when the document was written.
Almost all of the museum’s buildings are to be renovated, he said.
He said museum staff have experience hosting exhibitions and operating amid construction and the consensus was that they would not repeat that experience.
Asked by Ko to clarify whether artifacts at the Taipei branch would be moved to the National Palace Museum Southern Branch in Taibao City (太保), Chiayi County, during the three-year closure, Chen said the museum considers both branches to be part of the museum, so regardless of the duration of renovations — be it three years or five — it would not be a closure, but rather a change of venues.
The museum hopes to attract more foreign visitors to the southern branch, Chen said, adding that while three-quarters of visitors to the Taipei museum are foreigners, the southern branch struggles in this regard.
Separately yesterday, Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) said she proposed years ago that the museum’s items be exhibited at the southern branch.
The Chiayi City Government welcomes this move, she said, adding that it would bring more tourists to Chiayi and spur national development.
However, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday echoed concerns that renovation work at the Taipei branch would affect tourism in the capital.
Yao said the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall should be converted into the museum’s second venue in Taipei.
Then it could be used to exhibit the museum’s most popular artifacts, he said.
Additional reporting by Chou Yan-yu
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS