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Introduction
With the exhibition Treasures of the Sons of Heaven – The Imperial Collection from the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, the treasures of the National Palace Museum are once again assuming the role of cultural emissary that they played most recently in the 1998 French exhibition
Mémoire d’Empire – Trésors du Musée national du Palais,
Taipei. There is no doubt that European audiences will find the exhibition to be a potent expression of the beauty of Chinese art and culture.
The exhibit is the culmination of over ten years of enthusiastic correspondence and negotiations between the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik and the National Palace Museum. These discussions led to the German parliament’s 1998 amendment of the Kulturgutsicherungsgesetz, which now ensures the safe return of the loaned objects, and the subsequent organization of the exhibit, which is scheduled to visit two locations: the Altes Museum in Berlin, from July 18 to October 12, 2003; and the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik in Bonn, from November 21, 2003 to February 15, 2004.
The German curators, in cooperation with research staff from the National Palace Museum, has selected some four hundred objects for display (144 paintings, calligraphic works, and textiles; 237 ceramics, bronzes, and other artifacts; and 19 rare books). The exhibition attempts to reexamine, from a German perspective, the collecting tastes, cultural patronage, and artistic influence of China’s emperors. The principal theme,
Treasures of the Sons of Heaven, encompasses a series of five chronologically arranged sub-topics:
Manifestations of Human Civilization; The Establishment of the Imperial Collection －Humanism and Science; Brushwork and Precious Crafts; Antiquarian Revival－Artistic Creation Under Imperial Patronage; The Son of Heaven as Connoisseur－Reflection and
Progress. The exhibition focuses particularly on the critical roles played by the emperors Hui-tsung (r. 1101-1125), the first to systematically collect art and antiquities, and Ch’ien-lung (r. 1736-1795), who expanded the imperial collection in an unprecedented fashion.
 
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