(File photo) Chinanews, Beijing, Jan. 31 - The National Museum of China, located on the east side of Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, closed on Wednesday for a three-year renovation.
The museum's floor space will be expanded from the current 65,000 square meters to 192,000 square meters turning it into the world's largest arts and history museum, according to Xinhua citing a source with the museum.
The source said the museum did not have enough display and storage space, and some exhibition halls were becoming less safe due to old age.
The construction work will start in April and finish in 2010.
Built in 1959, the museum was renamed the National Museum of China in 2003, after it assimilated the former revolutionary museum and the history museum.
It houses hundreds of thousands of cultural relics from different periods of China's 5,000-year history.