The Taipei-based Palace Museum director Chou Kung-shin Tuesday voiced hope that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan would jointly exhibit in 2012 a famous ancient painting now separately held by the two sides.

The Taipei-based Palace Museum planned to exhibit the painting "Dwelling in the Fu Chun Mountains" by Huang Gongwang (1269-1354), according to Chou.

Chou said she warmly welcomed the mainland museum to bring its half of the painting to the island so it could be exhibited jointly.

"If the two parts of the painting could be put together, not only the Taipei Palace Museum and the island's public will be very happy, but also mainland tourists will be able to see it," she said.

"It'll benefit people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," she said.

More than 80 percent of mainland tourists to Taiwan had visited the Taipei-based Palace Museum, according to Chou.

Museums based in Taiwan and the mainland staged their first joint exhibition in Taipei late last year to showcase cultural relics related to Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) in Qing Dynasty.

The exhibition attracted more than 700,000 visitors to the Palace Museum over three months. One third of them were tourists from the mainland, Chou said.

The ancient scenic painting was partially destroyed in a 17th century fire. The smaller part of it, about 1.7 feet long, is stored in eastern China's Zhejiang Provincial Museum, while the larger part, about 21 feet long, is kept by the Taipei-based Palace Museum.

After Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed his hope that the two parts could be put together on March 14, Taiwan people have showed increasing interest in the painting.