Officials Hope To Open New Palace Museum This Summer

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority on Tuesday said it aims to open the new Palace Museum this summer, as a present for Hong Kong people on the 25th anniversary of the handover.

The authority said the museum is nearly fully furnished, and some exhibits are on their way to Hong Kong.

The seven-storey museum will boast nine exhibition halls and feature 900 relics loaned from Beijing's Palace Museum.

"I think it will be the first time that you can visit a Hong Kong museum with so much Chinese art culture displayed. Also, we'll adopt a new curatorial approach. We'll have a contemporary interpretation of Chinese art and culture," said museum director Louis Ng.

He said the museum, a modern building featuring red walls and yellow screens, has the same colour scheme as the Forbidden City.

Ng said while the museum's mission is to promote appreciation for Chinese art, he also hopes it will foster dialogue between different cultures, noting that 13 objects from the Louvre will also be on display.

The authority's CEO, Betty Fung, said she believes the museum will become a new landmark in the city, and she hopes it'll soon be welcoming visitors from the mainland and abroad.

"It isn't a branch of [Beijing's Palace Museum], it's a museum curated from a Hong Kong point of view, and a contemporary and international perspective," she said.

Fung said the opening date of the museum will depend on the progress of the furnishing work, and ticket fees will be announced later.