The construction of the new Sichuan Art Museum will be completed at the end of this year and open next June.

Its construction started in January 2010 with an investment of nearly 78 million yuan ($12 million), the Sichuan Artists Association's secretary-general Yang Shimin says.

It's Southwest China's largest modern art museum at nearly 20,000 square meters, which is four times the previous museum's size. It also has six exhibition halls, compared with three in the old museum.