Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) policy advisory team yesterday said that it is drafting plans to expand the National Palace Museum (NPM) and digitize all of the museum’s nearly 700,000 artifacts and works of art for an online exhibition.
The team made the announcement during a Facebook livestream in an effort to defend the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate’s proposal that the museum put all its collections on display at the same time to attract visitors.
“People who criticized him were the ones who lack the ability to think digitally. They were still thinking about traditional exhibitions,” said Simon Chang (張善政), head of the advisory team.
The reason Han made the proposition was because the team has been planning to digitize all of the museum’s collections for an online exhibition, he said.
The exhibition would allow people to access all of the museum’s collections and freely choose the pieces they would like to browse, he said.
Han on Sunday said that if the museum displays its entire collection in a single exhibition, it could “cause a global sensation.”
His proposal was widely criticized for being unrealistic and drew criticism from politicians and experts alike.
On Tuesday, the museum issued a statement saying that Han’s plan would be “difficult to execute.”
Of the museum’s nearly 700,000 artifacts and works of art, only the ones in good condition are fit for display, it said, adding that more fragile items must be stored for up to 18 months after every exhibition for maintenance and restoration.
Defending Han’s proposal, former National Palace Museum director Feng Ming-chu (馮明珠) said at the livestream: “Through digitization, displaying all of the museum’s [nearly] 700,000 pieces of national treasures at once would not be a problem at all.”
Between 70 and 80 percent of the museum’s collections have already been digitized, she said, adding that digitization work is still ongoing.
She added that high-resolution digitization would allow viewers to see the artifacts and works of art even more clearly than in person.
Furthermore, the policy advisory team is planning to expand the Taipei museum and adjust the curation strategies of its Chiayi branch, Chang said, adding that the latter should be displaying Chinese and Taiwanese artifacts and works of art, instead of those from other parts of Asia.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that the museum has long since digitized parts of its collection.
Han lacked sense in managing the exhibits at the museum, he said.
“It is doable, for example, if you displayed the 700,000 exhibits as if they were in a flea market or lined a highway with them, but it would be an international laughingstock,” the premier said, urging Han to do his homework before proposing a policy.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
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