It has been five long years in the making, but the highly anticipated Hong Kong Palace Museum has finally opened on 3 July in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District.
The museum joins other iconic attractions along the Victoria Harbour Waterfront, such as M+ — Asia's first global museum of contemporary visual culture which launched on 12 November — and other upcoming facilities.
The museum which costs US$450m to build, houses more than 900 priceless artefacts on loan from the original Palace Museum in Beijing. Hong Kong Palace Museum is also showcasing 13 artworks borrowed from the Louvre.
Photo Credit: Hong Kong Palace Museum
Guests can look forward to seeing many obscure treasured pieces that have previously never been seen by members of the public before. Artnet reports that the Hong Kong display, which includes ceramics, jade, bronze, costumes, jewellery, paintings, calligraphy and other national treasures, is the largest loan made by the Beijing institution since it became a museum in 1925.
Though the Hong Kong and Beijing museums are both linked, the Hong Kong Palace Museum is attempting to establish its own identity by incorporating multimedia works from six local artists in its opening ceremony. During its opening, the museum has already proven to be popular attraction, with more 115,000 tickets snapped up for the month of July.
“We believe this world-class museum will generate even more interest for Hong Kong as an arts and cultural destination and solidify the city’s position as a centre for international cultural exchange,” said Dane Cheng, executive director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.