Speech by Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, at the Naked Museum event at the National Gallery. "The National Gallery is an art museum, but the building itself is a work of art, rich with culture and history. As you know, this used to be the Former Supreme Court, and City Hall, where some of Singapore’s defining chapters in history were written. The Former Supreme court here, this was one of the last great neo-classical buildings built under colonial rule. In fact, if you look outside at the façade, you might see markings where the colonial emblems were removed. These were where the colonial emblems were. Please do not think that we removed them, it was also not because of botched up construction, or mislaid by someone. In fact, the emblems were removed way back during the Japanese Occupation and we decided to leave the marking as they are today, as reminders of scars of war, of difficult times that we have to go through as a nation."

http://www.mccy.gov.sg/en/news/speeches/2015/Apr/NakedMuseum.aspx#sthash.6N5igR4N.dpuf