National Gallery, London to hold first showcase in China next year

Shanghai Museum will kick off a new exhibition Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London on Jan 17.

Featuring 52 oil paintings from the collection of the British institution, the exhibition will present "a concise history of western European painting", according to Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, London. This is the first time the National Gallery is visiting China, he said.

The exhibition will present Western art from the Renaissance period to post-Impressionism and feature paintings by Botticelli, Raphael, Caravaggio, Monet and Van Gogh.

The exhibition, which will run till May 7, will be the second major international showcase following last year's West Encounters East: A Cultural Conversation Between Chinese and European Ceramics, which featured ceramic objects from the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet in Paris.

According to Chu Xiaobo, the new director of Shanghai Museum, collaborations with leading international museums is important to the institution's efforts to facilitate cultural exchange and dialogues between China and the world.