Collecting practices of the Al-Thani Family the project. The Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum was opened in 1998 and currently showcases over 15,000 artifacts that were collected by Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani over a span of several years. Besides largely contributing to the construction of new museums, Al-Thani Family is involved in a wide range of art events. In 2010, Qatar funded the exhibition of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, known as Murakami-Ego and shown at the Palace of Versailles in 2010. The exhibition was later shown in Doha in 2012. The Museum of Islamic Art was initially proposed, yet the Japanese artist
Surat Thani was impressed with the Indian city. On 21 December 1930 Surat Thani became a sanitary district ("sukhaphiban"), which was upgraded to a town ("thesaban mueang") on 7 December 1935, with a municipal area of 2.67 km². The area of the municipality was enlarged to 6.95 km² on 14 October 1958, and on 22 December 1994 it was further enlarged to 68.97 km². On 4 May 2007, the town was upgraded to city status ("thesaban nakhon"). Since 1969 Surat Thani is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Surat Thani, responsible for about 6,000 Catholics in southern Thailand. Surat Thani