Beijing Palace Museum, France’s Palace of Versailles loan relics for Hong Kong exhibition
Exhibition at Hong Kong Palace Museum to run from December 18 until May 4 of next year to celebrate 60 years of Sino-French diplomatic ties
Nine top-grade national treasures from Beijing’s Palace Museum will go on display alongside historical artefacts from the Palace of Versailles in Paris as part of a 150-item exhibition in Hong Kong to celebrate 60 years of Sino-French diplomatic ties.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum announced on Monday that it would hold a special exhibition, called “The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the 17th and 18th Centuries”, from December 18 until May 4 of next year.
The show will be split into four themes: key figures, spaces and cultural dynamics; scientific and diplomatic exchanges; craftsmanship and innovation; and the exchange of arts and ideas between the Forbidden City and Versailles – both of which are World Heritage sites.
Laurent Salome, director of the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon, told the Post that the show was a tribute to the two countries’ sense of mutual understanding and fascination from the 17th century onward.
“It illustrates the curiosity, the contacts and the numerous diplomatic missions, which have allowed major discoveries on both sides, from geography and mathematics to the arts,” he said.
“The inspiration from China was flourishing in French art. In the 18th century, French philosopher Voltaire and other intellectuals considered China the most ancient and brilliant civilization and a crucial partner for France, and this is even more important today.”
