Treasures at the National Palace Museum will not be exhibited in China because that country does not have a law to prevent the seizure of artworks, museum Director Chou Kung-shin (周功鑫) said yesterday.
The museum’s collections are national assets that will only be exhibited in countries that have laws that guarantee their return, she said.
“As long as there are no such legal protections in China, the National Palace Museum will not consider loaning national treasures to that country,” Chou said.
The museum’s director made the remarks at a news conference at the museum yesterday to mark the arrival of 37 pieces of art on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing. The pieces will be included in an exhibition on Emperor Yongzheng (雍正) — the fourth ruler of the Qing Dynasty — which will be held at the National Palace Museum from Wednesday to Jan. 10 next year.
The exhibition will feature 246 works of art related to Yongzheng, including 203 items from the museum’s Qing Dynasty collections, two from Shanghai Museum, three from Academia Sinica and one owned by a Taipei-based pharmaceutical company.
Of the works of art from China is a seal that was used by Emperor Yongzheng, which bears three Chinese characters that read: “It’s hard to be a king.”
At yesterday’s press conference, Chou said the joint exhibition was made possible after her “ice-breaking” visit to China’s Palace Museum in Beijing in February — the first of its kind in 60 years — and a reciprocal visit in March by Zheng Xinmiao (鄭欣淼), director of the Beijing museum.
During the visits, Chou said, they discussed matters regarding cross-strait cooperation on a joint Yongzheng exhibition.
The exhibition was also possible because of Taiwan’s legislation in 1992 of the Act on Encouraging and Rewarding Cultural and Art Enterprises (文化藝術獎助條例), Chou said.
“Under that statute, the exhibits from the museums in Beijing and Shanghai will be exempt from seizure or any legal entanglements over ownership,” she said. “Taiwan’s art and cultural objects could also be displayed in China once a similar statute is put in place there to grant them the same protection.”
The National Palace Museum has the world’s biggest collection of Chinese historical artifacts, totaling more than 700,000 pieces.
Most of the items were removed from Beijing Palace Museum in the 1930s to prevent the collection from falling into the hands of the invading Japanese army. They were later shipped to Taiwan when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led troops lost the civil war in China to the Peoples Liberation Army in 1949.
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