About 300 pieces from the Central Academy of Fine Arts' art museum have been published in an online exhibition developed jointly with Google Arts & Culture, featuring iconic works of Chinese modern art by master painters such as Xu Beihong.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The CAFA art museum held a show by Xu Beihong in March, which lasted for a month and attracted more than 300,000 visitors. But they decided to put the Xu Beihong show online to allow more people the opportunity to appreciate the master works without the limitations of time and space, says Fan.

"I don't know what kind of experience they will get through the online exhibition. But I do know that it's the trend facing all global museums. And it's a trend that will continue to affect them even more in the future," he adds.

According to Amit Sood, director of Google Arts and Culture, online exhibitions supported by new technology are helping museums to attract more visitors, especially the younger generations. Over the past seven years, the Google nonprofit foundation led by Sood has partnered with more than 1,700 cultural institutes from 70 countries to present countless exhibitions online.

Sood gives one example of how his team helped a Belgian artist to put his exhibition online, boosting the number of visitors to the artist's show by 30 percent.