Taiwan museum admits to breaking three Ming and Qing dynasty artefacts worth US$77 million
Taiwan’s National Palace Museum has admitted to breaking three Ming and Qing dynasty artefacts worth a reported US$77 million.
The Guardian reported that the items – a bowl, a teacup, and a plate – were uninsured and broken in three separate incidents in the past 18 months. But the damage only came to light last week.
On Friday (Oct 28), Taiwan’s opposition legislator Chen I-shin, who claimed he had received a tip-off, accused the museum’s director of attempting to cover up the incidents and ordering staff not to speak of the breakages.
The museum and the museum’s director Wu Mi-cha admitted that the three artefacts in its archive were broken. But they denied accusations that they had tried to cover up the incidents.
Wu said in a press conference that on Feb 3, 2021, and Apr 7, 2022, while staff members were organising artefacts, they discovered that a Ming dynasty “yellow teacup with two green dragons” (dated 1368-1644) and a Qing dynasty “yellow teacup with dragon pattern” (dated 1636–1911) were damaged.
Additionally, on May 19 this year, a Qing dynasty “blue-and-white floral plate” fell and broke due to staff mishandling.
Wu said a senior staff member had placed the plate on a 1m-high workstation and it fell onto a carpeted floor and broke into several pieces “as a bowl would”.
The museum also said it was unable to determine who was responsible for the other two incidents despite going through 10 years of CCTV surveillance footage.
Wu suspected the broken artefacts could be due to an unsatisfactory storage method.
He added that his staff immediately notified him of the incidents, and he had launched investigations in response.
The three artefacts had never been put on display. He also said they were not insured because they had not been appraised. He added that they were not appraised because insurance policies would have cost a lot otherwise.
The museum is working to improve storage practices for its artefacts, by replacing boxes with shelves and setting aside a budget for 2023 to improve porcelain archive packaging.
Agencies