Palace Museum criticized by public for breaking priceless antique
The Palace Museum in Beijing is once again being criticized by the public. After its safeguard system was broken by a theft in May, one of its researchers has since made a mistake when testing a priceless porcelain item and broke it into pieces on July 4th. Rather than informing the public at the time, the museum kept quiet about the issue until it was made public by a netizen from Sichuan.
The broken antique is the state's top-level celadon-glazed dish, a masterpiece of the Ge kiln porcelain of the Song Dynasty. With no more than 300 pieces remaining in the world, Ge kiln porcelain has long been on the list of the most valuable antiques. Nearly three weeks after the accident, a netizen from Sichuan published the information through microblog. He calls himself "Long Can" online. He says he's interested in antiques and constantly pays attention to information related to them.
Netizen "Long Can" said, "I got to know about it nearly 10 days ago through my personal connections. My teacher, who is an antiques expert in Sichuan told me about the accident. I was shocked. So I contacted some other researchers and they generally confirmed the news."
The Museum has given an explanation through the media, saying the accident happened during scientific testing. Due to an error by a researcher, the porcelain was squeezed by a testing instrument. The Museum says it carried out an investigation immediately after the accident. When asked why the details were not released at the time, the deputy director of the museum, and the chief of the investigation group, Chen Li Hua gave some reasons.
Chen Lihua, Deputy Director of Palace Museum in Beijing said, "We are very upset that the tragedy happened and we fully understand the netizen's concerns. The reason we didn't publish it at the beginning of July was that we needed time to figure out whether the problem was caused by human error or a technical problem with the equipment. It took a long time."
Ge kiln porcelain is one of the five most famous kilns in the Song Dynasty. The veins on the surface are constantly appreciated by porcelain collectors. Due to differences in glazed color and body quality, the porcelain will appear in various shades and colors. During a recent auction, a piece of Ge kiln porcelain went for 20 million Yuan, or over 3 million US dollars.
Up to now, the Museum has confirmed the actual cause was human error during the operation. Many experts say antiques and cultural relics reserve agencies should learn lessons from this accident and prevent them from happening again.
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