page_title: Palace Museum
section_title: Painting
hierarchical_section_title: Palace Museum / Collections / Painting
context_page_description: The Palace Museum is a national museum housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. It was established in 1925 after the last Emperor of China was evicted from his palace, and opened its doors to the public.
  Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the museum consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 hectares. It is home to over 1.8 million pieces of art, mostly from the imperial collection of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The 20th century saw its expansion through new acquisitions, transfers from other museums, and new archaeological discoveries.
  According to the Beijing Evening Post, the museum has seen more than 17 million visitors in 2018, which would make it the world's most visited museum. It has an average of 15 million visitors annually since 2012. Due to this increased pressure, the management has set a daily limit for visitors of 80,000 since 2015 to protect the ancient structure and the experience.
context_section_description: The Palace Museum holds close to 50,000 paintings. Of these, more than 400 date from before the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). This is the largest such collection in China and includes some of the rarest and most valuable paintings in Chinese history.
  The collection is based on the palace collection in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The personal interest of Emperors such as Qianlong meant that one of the most important collections of paintings in Chinese history was held at the palace.  However, a significant portion of this collection was lost. After his abdication, Puyi transferred paintings out of the palace, and many of these were subsequently lost or destroyed. In 1948, some of the best parts of the collection were moved to Taiwan. The collection has since been gradually replenished, through donations, purchases, and transfers from other museums.
caption: Ge Zhichuan Relocating by Wang Meng, 14th century
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