The Palace Museum houses more than 60 paintings by the Italian, who went to China in 1715 as a missionary but spent the next few decades as a painter with the Qing imperial court.

Known as Lang Shining in Chinese, Castiglione's works - mostly refined drawings of birds, flowers and horses - are a blend of European and Chinese styles.

Chou Kung-shin, director of the National Palace Museum, said the museum is discussing with the Vatican Museum the possibility of lending the painter's works for an exhibition there, but planning for the show could take three to four years.

"Lang Shining was a prolific painter, and most of his works were done in the imperial palace," Chou said.

The Palace Museum is a repository of Chinese art works, many of which were originally stored in Beijing's Forbidden City.

The Nationalist government shipped the treasures to Taiwan in the months before it fled the Chinese mainland following its defeat by the communist forces amid civil war in 1949.

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