Palace Museum to show 'meat-shaped stone' in first exhibition in Yilan

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) National Palace Museum (NPM) will for the first time show its iconic "meat-shaped stone" and 14 other artifacts in Yilan County at a special exhibition co-organized with Lanyang Museum in December, the two museums announced Thursday.

NPM Director Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌) and Acting Yilan County Magistrate Lin Mao-sheng (林茂盛) signed an agreement in Taipei on the two museums cooperating on the special exhibition, which is set to run from Dec. 23, 2025-March 22, 2026.

In a press statement released by the NPM, Hsiao said the museum has collaborated with local governments to bring national treasures in its collection to Changhua County, Tainan and the offshore county of Penghu since 2020.

For its first exhibition in Yilan, the National Palace Museum picked its famed "meat-shaped stone," along with a jade duck piece dating back to the Song and Yuan dynasties, a porcelain chicken cup in doucai painted enamels from the Ming dynasty, and a revolving vase with swimming fish in cobalt blue glaze from the Qing dynasty.

The wide range of different artifacts has been chosen to complement farmland and its natural environment as Yilan is a Pacific Ocean-facing plain surrounded by mountains, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Yilan County has picked 15 pre-historical artifacts to show early development in Yilan, including a golden carp found at the Iron Age Kiwulan Archaeological Site, where two eras of people dating back 600 years ago and 1,400 years ago were unearthed.

A knife handle made of bone discovered at the Blihun Hanben Archaeological Site will also be featured in the exhibition which is believed to date back to the period from the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age, as long as 3,500 years ago.

There will also be a multimedia display that allows visitors to interact with and learn how the first residents arrived and settled in Yilan, with a focus on craft artifacts unearthed across the county, the county government said in a separate statement.