The National Museum of China has held a gathering of museum directors from around the world. With a theme of "the Function and Mission of the National Museum on the Silk Road", the forum attracted over Over 40 directors and representatives of museums in 24 countries and 50 from Chinese museums.

"The main purpose of this forum is to build a platform for communication and exchanges. Through it, we hope we can accurately grasp the new trend in the development of museums and promote cooperation in exhibitions and researches, in order to accelerate the cultural exchanges among civilizations. We also hope that we can help promote mutual understanding among people from different countries," said Wang Chunfa, director of National Museum of China.  

The two-day forum began on Thursday, and focused on several topics, including "Silk Road National Museum Collection and Exhibition Exchange", "Smart Museum Construction", "Museum Talent Training" and "Diversity of Exhibitions". 

The opening ceremony of the forum also witnessed the launching of "Selected Records" of overseas Chinese Antiquities, Volume of the British Museum. This is the fourth volume of the book series published by the National Museum of China, which aims to show the current status and latest research of ancient Chinese relics collected in overseas museums.

"We had the privilege to do this with the national museum of China. Both sides have put in a lot of work in it. It turn out to be a very impressive, very beautiful book, with extraordinary works from China in the collection of the British Museum that allow more easily accessible," said Harwig Fischer, director of the British Museum.

Last year, the National Museum of China successfully held a forum gathering directors from dozens of museum across China. And this time, the scale has expanded from nationwide to worldwide. The national museum of China is using its international influence to build a platform for deeper cooperation and exchanges among world famous museums.

In recent years, China has focused on the protection of cultural heritage and international exchanges and cooperation with regards to museums. In the past five years, Chinese museums have put on 250 exhibitions outside the country and hosted 130 by their foreign counterparts.