Could the National Treasure be repaired?
Lou Wei, head of the Palace Museum's relics management department, said: According to national regulation, precious relics can be divided into three grades — the first grade, the second grade and the third grade. First-grade relics are the most precious. In the Palace Museum, they are subdivided into two levels — A level and B level. However, all of the first-grade relics are very precious. The Forbidden City contains 63 ancient ceramic pieces stemming from Ge kiln, among which 57 pieces are first-grade level (national treasures, including level A and level B). The Song porcelain plate was broken into six pieces. Although the breakage is complex, it can still be repaired. Experts in the Palace Museum, Shanghai Museum and many other museums in China have rich and mature experience in repairing ceramics.
Nevertheless, Ma Weidu, a prestigious collector, founder and curator of Guanfu Museum, said “the loss would be incalculable”. He thought even if the plate was repaired, it would be impossible to bring back its original appearance and value.
To Repair or Not to Repair
Pro
Jiang Daoyin, a high-level expert in ceramics repairing and the executive director of Relics Repairing Committee, Relics Institute of China, suggested a panel should be set up to discuss how to repair the plate.
“Now I haven’t seen the plate. After repairing, the plate would regain at least 90 percent of its original appearance and even 98 percent if it was broken at appropriate place,” Jiang said. He believed it was the most difficult to restore the crackles because they were caused by cracked glaze instead of a cracked body.
In Jiang’s opinion, after being restored, the plate could be very firm since synthetic resin and epoxide resin agglutinant would be used for repairing it. However, the restored plate should be detachable and environment friendly. As far as he was concerned, there were no experts in repairing ancient ceramics in the Palace Museum.
Con
Ma suggested the broken plate should not be repaired irresponsibly. “At present, chemical adhesives are usually used for repairing ceramics. In this way, the ceramics would seem more complete, but they would go wrong (i.e. discoloring) after several decades,” Ma said. “In other words, current repairing techniques are imperfect and irreversible. Therefore, even if there are more advanced techniques in the future, a repaired plate could not be separated for another repairing.” He believed since there was more than one contemporary product from Ge Kiln and more than one similar porcelain ware, ceramics from Ge Kiln could still be exhibited and appreciated even if the plate was left without repairing for a period of time. The repairing should not take place until the techniques are more dependable, he said.
Ye Peilan, a researcher for the Palace Museum and expert in porcelain, thought the body’s original color could be seen clearly after the plate was broken, which is of research value. “I don’t agree with immediate repairing because the damaged plate is useful for research.” Ye said.
Who should compensate for the loss?
Who should compensate for the loss after the national treasure has been damaged? As the breakage was exposed, the safety of museum stores became a hot topic. Stores in most museums haven’t been insured yet, except those lent for exhibitions.
Experts appealed to set up, as soon as possible, an effective mechanism of insuring museum stores and changing insurance on them regularly according to the market tendency.
Lessons
When talking about the broken Song porcelain plate, Ma said the biggest problem is responsibility. If the staff lacks responsibility and alertness, relics could possibly be damaged. What does the Palace Museum staff need to stay a trusted entity? It needs responsibility, reverence, caution, professional attitude and the love for relics. Without the qualities above, it would put the relics in danger.
Ye said the breakage had been exposed at home and abroad, exerting a negative influence on the Palace Museum. But it should not be connected to the commercial activity or thievery which happened in the museum not long before. As a senior expert in the museum, Ye said the procedure for taking relics out of the storehouse was very strict. She believed it was the most significant for staff to think about the experience and learn a lesson from it. Carefulness, seriousness and responsibility are indispensable when dealing with cultural relics.
Print
Save