The British Museum has recently undertaken an extensive program
of collaboration with museums in China, building on a network of
existing curatorial relationships.
In 2005, it signed a historic agreement with the National Museum
of China in Beijing, followed by a similar agreement in 2006 with
the Palace Museum, Beijing. These agreements will facilitate future
collaborative projects, including the loan of terracotta soldiers
from Xi'an, and in return, the loan by the British Museum of
exhibitions of world cultures unrepresented in Chinese
collections.
To date, four British Museum touring exhibitions have been sent
to venues in China. Treasures of the World's Cultures: the British
Museum after 250 Years was seen by more than 200,000 visitors to
the Capital Museum in Beijing and has just opened in Taiwan. Art
and Empire, an exhibition of Assyrian material, was lent to the
Shanghai Museum and attracted well over 300,000 visitors.
In March 2007, the British Museum opened an exhibition jointly
with the Palace Museum in Beijing. The show entitled Britain Meets
the World explores Britain's relationships across the globe during
the Georgian period, as it emerged as an international power.
"It was the first time we undertook such a close collaboration,"
says Hannah Boulton, communications manager of the British
Museum.
According to Jane Portal, curator of the present terracotto
exhibition and also an expert on Chinese culture, future loan
exhibitions will focus on world cultures not currently represented
in Chinese collections. An exhibition on ancient Greece will travel
to Shanghai and Beijing in 2008, followed by a focus on ancient
Egypt and India. This program of loan exhibitions will run between
2008 and 2012, spanning the Cultural Olympiad.
"These collaborations will also tap into the wealth of expertise
available at both the British Museum and its key partners in China
and the potential for cross-cultural and academic exchanges,
providing an invaluable communication of expert curatorial and
artistic knowledge," says Boulton.
For example, the British Museum sent specialists to the Palace
Museum in Beijing, to conduct a survey of the museum's European
clock collection and curators from the Palace Museum made a return
visit to London in October last year.
Chinese art scholars have agreed to assist the British Museum
over the next five years in producing an online catalogue of the
1,000 Chinese paintings in the Museum's collection.
(China Daily September 14, 2007)