Chinese Name: 奇美博物館
Year of Establishment: 1992
Address: No. 66, Sec. 2, Wenhua Rd., Rende Dist., Tainan City
Opening Hours: 9:30 – 17:30 (Closed on Wednesdays)
Official Website: www.chimeimuseum.org
Did You Know That…?
Chimei Museum has organized exhibitions in collaboration with many foreign art institutions, including Japan’s Seikadō Bunko Art Museum (静嘉堂文庫美術館) as well as Britain’s Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and National Gallery.
Located in Rende District (仁德區) of Tainan City, the Chimei Museum was established by Shi Wen-long, the founder of Chi Mei Corporation (奇美實業). With about 13,000 artifacts, the private art museum has the richest collections in Taiwan. Its collections are divided into four parts: Western art, musical instruments, weaponry, and natural history. The venue is managed and operated by the Chimei Museum Foundation.
In 1977, the Chi Mei Culture Foundation was officially set up, aiming to promote local cultural affairs and carry out the artifact collection project. Established in 1992 and open in April of the same year, the Chimei Museum was located on the fifth to eighth floor of the Chi Mei Corporation building. The new building for the museum was constructed in Tainan Metropolitan Park in December 2008, and the old museum was relocated in 2013 and reopened two years later.
Costing NT$1.85 billion and taking five years to complete, the newly-built Chimei Museum is a building with three floors above ground and one below, covering 10 hectares. The museum is characterized by the neoclassical style. Its facades are decorated with the three orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture—the Corinthian order, Ionic order, and Doric order.
The main hall’s dome is an artwork created by French sculptor Gilles Perrault. By combining elements of East and West, the design of the dome demonstrates its uniqueness. On the top of the dome is the “Angel of Glory” statue, inspired by French sculptor Louis Ernest Barrias’ work “The Allegory of Fame.” Holding a laurel and bugle, the beautiful angel is a symbol of a guardian of the museum.
Outside the museum, there are many sculpture artworks by various artists, including “Exercise Series (運動系列)” by Taiwanese sculptor Pu Tian-sheng (蒲添生), “Diver” by Italian artist Umberto Milani, and “Vitruvian Man” by American sculptor Babette Bloch.
At the entrance square of Chimei Museum, there is the Fountain of Apollo, which is a same-scale replica of the one at the Palace of Versailles in France. This original group of sculptures was created by Jean-Baptiste Tuby between 1668 and 1671, based on a design by Charles Le Brun. It portrays Apollo, the Greek sun god, rising from the sea at daybreak in his four-horse chariot. The museum commissioned French artist Gilles Perrault in 2008 to reproduce the Fountain of Apollo. It took three years for modern laser measuring and the mold to be made in France for the reproduction sculpture, and another three years to carve the marble in Italy. The duplicate of the Fountain of Apollo was unveiled in 2014. Between the Chimei Museum and the Fountain of Apollo is the Olympus Bridge. With the statues of the Twelve Olympians on both sides, the bridge presents the image of the ancient Greek mythological world.
Chimei Museum houses collections of fine arts, musical instruments, weaponry, and natural history. Aiming to offer the context of the history of Western art, the museum exhibits paintings and sculptures from the West. Notably, it has the largest collection of violins, including the ones made by world-famous luthiers. Moreover, the most complete collection of arms and armor from various countries in Asia can be found in the museum, presenting the history of technological development through military weapons. In the field of natural history, the museum also boasts a vast taxidermy collection in Asia, which encompasses mammals and birds from five continents.
As the museum’s founder Shi Wen-long said, “Good works of art are not to be kept just for oneself to enjoy, but to be shared with the public; and a good collection should not reflect just the collector’s personal tastes, but to tailor to common tastes and have enough varieties for everyone to find something to enjoy and appreciate.” The purpose of the Chimei Museum is to allow people of all ages and social backgrounds in Taiwan to have easy access to Western culture and arts without having to travel abroad.