The Palace Museum announces a three-year closure for renovation—but the plan is urgently revised to expansion without closure

By MOOK Scenic Spots, compiled report

According to the National Palace Museum’s visitation statistics from January to October 2018, the Northern Branch received 3,136,096 visitors, while the Southern Branch had 653,138. The museum stated that the plan to relocate some important artifacts from the Northern Branch to the Southern Branch for display is not necessarily related to the expansion project of the Northern Branch. In the future, the Southern Branch will continue to exhibit artifacts from the Northern Branch or host international loan exhibitions.

The renovation project for the Northern Branch this time takes into account the “New National Palace Museum Plan.” Since the main building has been in use for over 50 years, it has issues such as cracked and damaged roofing, aging air conditioning and electrical equipment, and insufficient exhibition space in display rooms—limiting exhibition possibilities—which led to the formulation of this renovation plan.