BY LOUISE CHEN

Published: July 30, 2010

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/old-masters/renaissance/article/35369-an-ill-fated-masterpiece-brings-together-china-and-taiwan

After several months of diplomatic talks, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou announced its decision yesterday to loan the painting Broken Mountains, one of two remaining fragments of Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang's "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains," to Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, which holds the other section of the painting. A joint exhibition to mark the historic reunion of the two pieces, which have been separated for 350 years, is now scheduled to run from June through September of 2011 as an unusually warm cultural exchange between China and Taiwan.

Measuring only 20 inches in length, "Broken Mountains" was separated from the rest of the originally 28-foot work — considered one of the masterpieces of Chinese landscape painting — after the Ming Dynasty collector Wu Hongyu ordered the painting burnt on his funeral pyre in 1650. The fragment, along with the far larger 21-foot section, were saved from destruction by Wu's nephew. Completed by the artist in his twilight years in 1350, the ink-on-paper handscroll "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" vividly depicts the magnificent landscape along the Fuchun River in Zhejiang.

Before entering the collection of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, "Broken Mountains" was owned by renowned Shanghai collector Wu Hufan. The other section, distinguished by its dramatic natural sceneries, was once housed in 18th century's Qing royal court and was among Emperor Qianlongs most treasured artworks. It has been in the collection of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum since the late 1940s.