Taiwan and Czechia sign agreement for joint exhibition: a new milestone in cultural cooperation

The National Palace Museum and the National Museum in Prague have signed an exhibition cooperation agreement, marking another milestone in the friendly relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
Under the agreement signed by the director of the National Palace Museum, Hsiao Tsung-huang, and his Czech counterpart, Michal Lukeš, a special exhibition featuring pieces from the Taiwan museum’s collection will be held at the Prague institution between September and December of the next year.

The event, whose motto is “100 objects, 100 stories: treasures of the National Palace Museum,” will present some of the most emblematic pieces of the museum, such as the jadeite cabbage, a piece shaped like a Chinese cabbage carved in fine jade with a cicada and a grasshopper on its leaves dating to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and Qingming Riverside Festivala scroll painting depicting the landscape and daily life of Bianjing during the Northern Song period (960-1127).

Hsiao noted that the upcoming expo has been in the works for 20 years due to regulatory challenges. It will be possible in part thanks to the successful staging of “A Thousand Faces of Formosa: Nature and Tradition of Taiwan”, which was organized in 2005 at the Prague venue by the National Taiwan Museum. He also thanked the Czech Government and the National Museum for their help in the process, adding that the event is of great importance as it coincides with the centenary of the National Palace Museum.

In response, Lukeš thanked the National Palace Museum and the Czech Senate for supporting the legislation necessary to make the exhibition a reality, while the First Vice President of the Czech Senate, Jiří Drahoš, who was at the museum to witness the historic moment, highlighted that he hopes the exhibition will become a major cultural attraction.