2010 Jul 08 Rival Palace Museums Trace History Together
The Palace Museum of Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taipei have been contentious for years over rightful ownership of national treasures from the Forbidden City. However, this week The New York Times reported the two museums are working together to trace the path of Imperial relics, moved from Beijing for safekeeping during Japan’s occupation of China.
In the 1930s, when Japan invaded Northern China and moved towards Beijing, the Chinese government under the Kuomintang packed paintings, calligraphy, jade, and other relics into more than 19,000 crates and shipped them to Nanjing. In 1939 the collection was again in range of Japanese aggression; the guards of the Imperial treasure divided it into three groups and sent the relics along different routes to be hidden. The thousands of Song and Qing artifacts were sent on a “16-year odyssey” before being protected in caves, sheds, bunkers, and private homes.
This year, the Palace Museums sent a research team, including some of the original protectors’ children, to several cities in the mainland, concluding in Chongqing, in search of the Imperial treasure’s hiding places. This cross-Strait cooperation stemmed from “a common desire to understand the remarkable events that both preserved the treasures and eventually led to their division” after the Cultural Revolution in 1949.
The Palace Museum in Taiwan, for its part, houses a collection of Qing Dynasty sandalwood furniture from the house of Prince Kung, extremely rare Ju Ware pottery from the 11th century, as well as the famous Jadeite Cabbage with Insects that we see so frequently imitated at antiques markets.
Though the institutions have not discussed the unification of the collections in one location, “the two museums are teaming up for a joint exhibition in Beijing later this year, about their travels following the route of the imperial treasures.” In July 2010, a second exhibition will be held in Taipei, including the re-unification of an ancient Yuan dynasty painting that was divided when the Nationalists fled to Taiwan.
Dates for the exhibition are still forthcoming.
In the meantime, if you’re planning on taking out-of-town guests to the Palace Museum this summer, or simply playing tourist yourself, the museum is currently running an exhibition of the “Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival,” a famous Song Dynasty painting. The exhibit is enhanced by an interactive touch-screen display, and audio dialogues based on characters in the painting.
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