The Poly Art Museum is near the Dongsi Shitiao Overpass in Beijing. Since its opening in Dece,ber 1999, the museum has been active in its pursuit of precious cultural relics lost both domestically and abroad, following the principle of "pursuing neither quantity nor diversity, but rather exquisiteness, rarity and preciousness."

In the spring of 2000, the museum retrieved and housed three treasures originating from the Yuan Ming Yuan (the Old Summer Palace) ¨C the bronze heads of an ox, a tiger and a monkey, which have been acclaimed by all who have seen them.

The museum is currently running two specialized exhibitions. One is the Exhibition of Selected Ancient Chinese Bronze Ware, which comprises 150 pieces (sets) of bronze ware from the 16^th century B.C. to A.D. 9^th century. These exhibits reflect the course of development of the ancient Chinese Bronze Age civilization. Among them are priceless rarities, such as a zun ¨C a wine container ¨C decorated with the animal-mask motif of three ox heads, and a set of Rongsheng chime bells. The second, the Exhibition of Selected Ancient Chinese Stone Carvings of Buddhist Images, focuses on Chinese Buddhist art at its zenith, and includes over 40 Buddhist stone carvings from the 5^th to the 8^th centuries. Among the exhibits are well preserved Buddhist sculptures, created from the 6^th to 7^th centuries in Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. This is the first time these artifacts have been shown to the public. These two exhibitions provide the public with fresh knowledge on ancient Chinese bronze art and Buddhist sculpture.

Since May 2000, the Poly Art Museum has been cooperating with the relevant government departments in staging a mobile exhibition of Yuan Ming Yuan state treasures in 12 cities, including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. To date, the exhibition has received nearly 3 million visitors.

The museum has commissioned 50 top specialists in cultural relics from the Chinese mainland as its advisors, thus creating a precedent within the sphere of Chinese museum circles.