Museum admits damage after online revelations
By Liang Yiwen |
August 1, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DAMAGE to a precious porcelain plate, and a delay of almost a month in reporting it, has landed Beijing's Palace Museum in hot water.
Researchers at the museum accidentally damaged a rare plate made in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the museum confirmed yesterday in response to a storm of online criticism.
Microblogger Long Can revealed on Saturday that museum workers had smashed a Ge kiln celadon-glazed dish when taking it out of a warehouse.
Long said similar Ge kiln ceramics were worth millions of yuan at auction.
The museum had kept the accident a secret and ordered employees not to say anything about it, he said.
The blog about the broken plate soon made the top 5 of hottest topics on microblogging site Weibo.com, attracting almost 100,000 comments.
Yesterday, the museum issued a public statement saying the antique was damaged when researchers were conducting scientific testing and analysis on July 4. It didn't reveal the extent of the damage.
The plate was on a platform which had been raised too high, resulting in the damage, the museum's investigation found. Researchers had successfully finished testing 50-plus pieces of ceramic relics with the aid of the same equipment since starting a research program on Song Dynasty porcelain last year, the museum said.
The museum has halted the program after the accident.
However, the museum hadn't reported the incident to the Ministry of Culture or the Beijing Administration of Cultural Heritage until yesterday.
The museum said the delay was to allow for a thorough investigation and a detailed report before contacting the authorities.
Long said the museum might have kept the incident a secret without the online disclosure and accusations.
Researchers at the museum accidentally damaged a rare plate made in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the museum confirmed yesterday in response to a storm of online criticism.
Microblogger Long Can revealed on Saturday that museum workers had smashed a Ge kiln celadon-glazed dish when taking it out of a warehouse.
Long said similar Ge kiln ceramics were worth millions of yuan at auction.
The museum had kept the accident a secret and ordered employees not to say anything about it, he said.
The blog about the broken plate soon made the top 5 of hottest topics on microblogging site Weibo.com, attracting almost 100,000 comments.
Yesterday, the museum issued a public statement saying the antique was damaged when researchers were conducting scientific testing and analysis on July 4. It didn't reveal the extent of the damage.
The plate was on a platform which had been raised too high, resulting in the damage, the museum's investigation found. Researchers had successfully finished testing 50-plus pieces of ceramic relics with the aid of the same equipment since starting a research program on Song Dynasty porcelain last year, the museum said.
The museum has halted the program after the accident.
However, the museum hadn't reported the incident to the Ministry of Culture or the Beijing Administration of Cultural Heritage until yesterday.
The museum said the delay was to allow for a thorough investigation and a detailed report before contacting the authorities.
Long said the museum might have kept the incident a secret without the online disclosure and accusations.
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