The National Museum of China, the grand building on the east side of Tian'anmen Square in downtown Beijing, closed on Wednesday for a three-year overhaul that will transform it into the world's largest art and history museum.

"The museum's floor space will be expanded from the current 65,000 square meters to 192,000 square meters, which will be the world's most spacious," said a source with the museum.

"It does not have enough display and storage space, and some exhibition halls are becoming less safe due to old age," the source said, adding that the museum can't ensure the safe keeping of its relics as standards are below what is expected of a top-level state museum.

"When it re-opens, the displays, security measures, and services will all be equal to other world-class museums," the source said.

The National Museum, formerly called the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, was built in 1959. It houses hundreds of thousands of cultural relics from different periods of China's 5,000-year history.

The source explained that most of the precious relics will be stored at a special site during the renovations.

Some of relics will be displayed at the Capital Museum of China during the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the source added.

Construction work is scheduled to begin in April.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)