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Here is full(er) text of Fan Di’an interview for Art Newspaper:

China’s top art politician talks shop

Fan Di’ An, the museum director of the National Art Museum of China
(NAMOC) exclusively revealed to the Art Newspaper that the Chinese
government has approved the plan to build a new NAMOC next to the
famous Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium.
“The building will be 80,000 m2, and will take 3 years to construct,
with a preliminary budget of roughly RMB 1.2 billion (GBP 100
million), we will still keep the old building as well,” Fan said.
“The old building is an important structure in Beijing, it is one of
the key structures of the new China, built in 1958. As you can see
Chairman Mao Zhedong’s calligraphy is used for our official sign. The
plan for the new NAMOC is an important plan, as the government has
built new architecture for all the major sport and cultural
institutions, such as the new library, etc, so now the government
leaders want a new art museum, and they want it done quickly. It is
their initiative,” Fan said.

Fan was in charge of the cultural aspects of the Beijing Olympics
games, and stressed he hopes to increase relations with the UK as the
preparations for the London games progress. “I very much regret I was
unable to attend the meeting of worldwide museum directors in the UK,
held today (October 6) as you can see I had this very important
project. I was supposed to make a presentation there. I am very sorry,
especially to the British Council, that I was unable to attend. I very
much wish to meet with these foreign museum directors. I have paid a
lot of attention to, and am studying, the development of museums as a
part of cultural identity and cultural industry, especially in the UK.
I am impressed by the way the Blair administration, over the space of
several years, made culture an integral part of government policy.
Before museums had no relation really to society as a whole. I am also
Chairman of China’s art museum association, as well as a professor at
China’s Academy of Art. So I am very interested to work and cooperate
with international museums. I especially am interested in MOMA New
York and Tate Britain.”

“Art museums in China are entering a new development period, for a
long time here there were very few professional staff, and the museum
was just an exhibition space, not really an art museum. But now the
government has spent, and will spend, a lot of money on this new
architecture, this for China is a new period, how we will use these
buildings,” Fan said.

NAMOC is the main approving body for international cooperation
projects country wide in China. Fan outlined the situation: “NAMOC is
the national museum of this country, unlike Shanghai Art Museum, for
instance, which is run by the local government. We are directly run by
the Cultural Bureau, and NAMOC represents the Chinese government in
international relations on contemporary art, so for instance if
Shanghai wants to have an international exhibition we must approve it.
Our mission is split into three types of work in the field of modern
to contemporary art- firstly to develop Chinese contemporary art,
secondly to build and protect a collection of related artworks, and
thirdly to build foreign relations. We have around 6 major
international cooperation projects a year – for instance this year
with the Prado, Guggenheim, German National Museum Munich, and others.
Next year Tate Britain will bring the Turner prize winners collection
here, which will be around a two month exhibition, starting May 1. We
also have some other cooperation plans with east European countries,
such as the Czech Republic, and Venice.”
Fan is considered one of the leading lights in the current development
of contemporary art in China, and he has been active in the field
since 1982. “So why do we do this? The Chinese people are very
interested to see international work. Around 250,000 – 300,000 people
attend each of these exhibitions. Currently we have the UBS collection
on the third floor, and on the first floor an exhibition of Chinese
oil painters. It is very interesting, my intention for this was for
the modern oil painters on the first floor to meet their teachers on
the third floor. We expect a total of 1.1 million visitors this year,
of those 40% are free. Under 17s and seniors are free, and also a
special category of workers and peasants. Around 40,000 students a
year visit under a special program, also every Sunday is free. We have
100 volunteers who work then to help us.”

Corrected- it was a show of the artist Turner, not the Turner prize winners
Commenting on the issue of inappropriate behaviour from Chinese
audiences, such as the recent chaos at the Shanghai Art Museum at the
Shanghai Biennale, Fan said: “The Chinese audience don’t have this
kind of experience of how to visit a museum, we need to train them.
Art appreciation is lacking in our education.”

According to Fan NAMOC plans to increase its collection activities.
“Now we have 100,000 pieces in the basement. Do you see the armed
police guarding the museum? They are not here to guard me, these 50
police are guarding our collection. 95% are Chinese works, the rest
are international, especially gifts from the former USSR and eastern
Europe. We have very little western modern art, in fact in the whole
of China I would say there are only 3000 pieces of western art, it is
not enough. We have 4 Picassos given to us by Peter Ludwig. A major
purpose of this collection is to exhibit in other parts of China. We
want to collect more, and there are discussions on the national budget
on how to go about this. It will not be by going to auctions. Actually
in China most works are donated to us directly by artists. In western
countries collectors have this habit of buying work and donating to
museums. But in China collectors are a new thing. They have made a big
start, but for many it is just a business vehicle, and some, their
mouth says its not for profit, but their heart says business. It is
very difficult. We will never meet the market price of works, but this
doesn’t mean I disagree with some of the high prices for some Chinese
art. If some work wasn’t expensive there would be something wrong.
Chinese art should have its price. But nowadays, jokingly, we say a
lot of artists are not earnestly making art, they are making prices.
It is not real. I think you have this too is the west. Like Damien
Hirst, but I think it’s a kind of strategy on his part, to push the
whole field. The fast pace of change has put a lot of pressure on
Chinese artists, the shock of the new in the west, for us is the
shock of the reality, it is a different experience to what western
artists have experienced. Its strategy (the development of art), not
venture capital investment.”