Guggenheim mulls museum project in Beijing

Reuters
Friday, February 9, 2007; 12:58 AM

BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters Life!) - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is considering developing a museum project in Beijing, its director said on Friday during a visit to China.

The foundation is looking at several possibilities, including a five-year museum collaboration that could be located at a converted factory adjacent to Beijing's 798 art district, said Thomas Krens, director of the New York based foundation.

Other possibilities could include cooperation with Chinese government bodies along the lines of an existing partnership with the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

On Saturday, the Guggenheim premiers in Beijing an exhibition of 130 works of American art, from the Colonial era through contemporary art. The exhibition will travel to Shanghai in May and June.

The foundation said in July that it would build a museum in the Arab Gulf city of Abu Dhabi, to be designed by Frank Gehry. It already has museums in New York, Bilbao, Spain, Venice, Berlin, and Las Vegas.

The Parisian modern art museum, the Pompidou Centre, plans to open an annex in Shanghai by 2010, its president said in a January interview with French newspaper Le Monde.
 

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