Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/13
By: Sabine Cheng, Y.F. Low and Elizabeth Hsu
Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) The Cabinet has adopted the stance that the Taipei branch of the National Palace Museum (NPM) will not be closed while it undergoes renovation, Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said Tuesday, contradicting remarks made a day earlier by NPM Director Chen Chi-nan (陳其南).
Kolas was responding to surging media reports about the museum’s controversial renovation plan, which opposition Kuomintang Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) exposed during a Monday legislative hearing.
The lawmaker alleged, citing the minutes of an NPM interior meeting, that the museum, an important tourist attraction in northern Taiwan, could be shut down for three years for renovation starting 2020, with its collections to be shipped to the museum’s southern branch, about 250 kilometers away in Chiayi County.
Asked at the Monday hearing about the possibility of the shutdown, Chen admitted that the plan’s details have not been finalized. [FULL STORY]