BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, replied to a letter by veteran experts and artists of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) on May 21. In his letter, Xi extended warm congratulations and sincere greetings to all members of the museum as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.

Xi said in the letter that the NAMOC has witnessed New China's thriving development of fine arts. Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, it has achieved a great deal in collecting outstanding artworks, holding exhibitions, facilitating public education and promoting international exchanges.

Xi said he hoped that the museum would adhere to the correct political orientation on the new journey, put people first and put into practice the core socialist values in running the venue. He called for painstaking efforts on the part of the museum to improve the quality of its collection, promote its utilization level of artworks, and provide better services. He called on the NAMOC to develop itself into an art venue that enjoys national and even worldwide prestige for the general public to appreciate fine artworks and improve their artistic literacy in the new era, so as to make greater contributions to the prosperity and development of China's fine arts, to building cultural confidence and strength, and to achieving new progress in developing socialist culture.

A national-level art museum established after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the NAMOC was opened to the public on May 23, 1963. Over the six decades, the museum has held more than 5,500 influential art exhibitions and housed over 130,000 artworks of various types from home and abroad. In recent days, 13 veteran experts and artists from the NAMOC wrote a letter to General Secretary Xi Jinping, in which they reported what the museum has achieved and expressed their resolve to make further contributions to the high-quality development of the country's art museums in the new era.