Liberate art from politics: minister

Outgoing National Palace Museum Director and education minister-designate Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) yesterday said it was time to look at the museum's collection from a universalist rather than nationalist perspective because the collection is a heritage that belongs to the whole world.

"One of the directions I think the museum should follow is to extract these works from any political context so they can be appreciated on the basis of their artistic function," Tu said in his opening speech at the Summit of International Museum Directors at the museum yesterday.

"We believe it is the cultural relics themselves that should be the principal part of a museum. I think the ultimate meaning for any individual or nation that possesses cultural relics like these is to realize the objects' function to their fullest extent -- which is to share them with the entire world," Tu said.

Tu the museum had been assigned responsibility for reinforcing the legitimacy of Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) rule over all of China after retreating to Taiwan in 1949.

However, Tu said, the Republic of China had considerable difficulty functioning in the international community after 1979, when it was ejected from the UN.

Following democratization and liberalization in the 1980s, Taiwan's national identity evolved from "Chinese consciousness" to "Taiwanese consciousness" in the 1990s, Tu said.

He said the museum, which is dominated by Chinese cultural relics, had to apply universalist thinking rather than nationalist sentiment in carving out its future, so that it could adapt to a rapidly changing world.

"I wonder if any other museum in the world has a history similar to this one, a history so closely attached to the destiny of its nation," Tu said.

"But I believe that real beauty has universal meaning and transcends national, cultural and ethnic boundaries," Tu added.

Tu frequent accusations from Chinese authorities that Chiang "looted" the treasures from Beijing before escaping to Taiwan. He said he disagreed with the contention that the collection had been tainted by "original sin."

"I would like to stress that I do not mean to defend anyone," Tu said. "I just want to remind people that if we don't learn from history and fail to dedicate ourselves to the preservation of cultural relics and instead dispute their ownership, then it would make us no different from the two mothers who quarreled over an infant before King Solomon."

The new education minister said he was not hinting at any particular policy changes, nor did his successor at the museum have to agree with his opinions. But Tu said that such matters, and education in particular, should not be politicized.