NPM won't loan pieces to China

The NPM collections are national assets and if they are to be exhibited abroad, it will be only in countries that have laws that guarantee the return of the exhibits, Chou said. “As long as there are no such legal protections in China, the NPM will not consider loaning the national treasures to that country,” Chou said.

The NPM director made the remarks at a news conference held at the museum Friday to mark the arrival of 37 pieces of art that are on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing. The pieces will be included in an exhibition on Emperor Yongzheng — the fourth ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty — which will held at the NPM from Oct. 7 to Jan. 10, 2010.

The exhibition will feature 246 artworks related to Yongzheng, including 203 items from the NPM's Qing Dynasty collections, two from the Shanghai Museum, three from Academia Sinica and one owned by a Taipei based pharmaceutical company.

One of the artworks 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.”

Yongzheng ruled China for 13 years from 1722 to 1735. He was known as a tough and hard-working emperor who opposed corruption and was bent on clean, effective government. During his reign, the Manchu Empire became a great and peaceful power.

Yongzheng's private life was a sad one. He had nine children but only three survived. He died mysteriously at the age of 58. He was succeeded by his son, Prince Hong Li, who became the fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty under the name Emperor Qianlong.

At Friday'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, 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 Statute on Encouraging and Rewarding Cultural and Art Enterprises, 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 added.

“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,” she said.

The NPM has the world's largest collection of Chinese historical artifacts, totaling more than 700,000 pieces.

Most of the items were removed from the 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 the Kuomintang-led Nationalist troops lost to the Communists in the Chinese civil war in 1949.

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