News: French architect Jean Nouvel has been officially declared winner of the competition to design the prestigious National Art Museum of China in Beijing, ending months of speculation.

In a comment on an earlier Dezeen story about the competition, Jean Nouvel's adviser Olivier Schmitt announced that the museum had declared Nouvel and Beijing Institute of Architecture Design (BIAD) the winners.

"By a notification sent on July 25th 2012 and signed by the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Jean Nouvel (Ateliers Jean Nouvel) and Beijing Institute of Architecture Design (BIAD) have been declared winners by the jury of the international competition for the construciton of the NAMOC in Beijing," Schmitt wrote.

In an email to Dezeen this morning, Schmitt added: "I have nothing more to say at this moment. We are still having negotiations with Chinese officials to finalize our project."

Nouvel was shortlisted for the project last year along with architects Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, but despite rumours suggesting Nouvel had won, there has been no official word on the outcome until now.

David Nam, partner at Gehry Partners, told Dezeen last week: "To our knowledge the Chinese government has made no official announcement [about the winner of the competition]".

When complete, NAMOC will be the showpiece building at a new cultural district in the Olympic Park in the north of the Chinese capital. The building will be dedicated to displaying 20th century art and calligraphy both from China and from around the world.

The competition to design NAMOC was conducted over three rounds, from December 2010 to July 2012. Earlier this month, Gehry unveiled his shortlisted design, which would have featured a facade of translucent, stone-like glass panels. Gehry's team created full-scale mockups of the panels in Beijing as part of the development process.

Image: Ateliers Jean Nouvel / Beijing Institute Architecture Design (BIAD).