Relics of ancient Rome on loan from the Italian Government will be included at a regular display of China's first museum of world art, said sources with the museum.

The Millennium Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, which has become a major art venue in Beijing since it opened in 2000, will be built into a museum of world art by October 2006, said Zhang Yu, spokeswoman of the museum.

The Italian deputy cultural minister Giuseppe Proiette and Wang Jianqi, general manager of Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group, signed an agreement on long-term bilateral co-operation between the Italian cultural department and the Gehua Group, which owns the museum.

The Italian cultural minister Giuliano Urbani and Cai Fuchao, head of the Beijing Municipal Information Office, attended the signing ceremony.

The two sides also agreed on co-hosting an exhibition called "Chang'an and Rome," which features relics from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) unearthed mainly in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and those of ancient Rome in Beijing in 2008, said Zhang.

As well as temporary exhibitions like "Chang'an and Rome," the museum of world art will have a regular display of relics from around the world, including those of ancient Egypt, Rome, the Mediterranean, India and Maya.

Wang Yudong, deputy director of the museum, said the museum has built co-operation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the American Museum of Natural History, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

He added that his museum also enjoyed support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in building a museum of world art.

(China Daily  December 9, 2004)