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Field Notes from Beijing
Custodians or thieves? When China’s treasures are lost from within
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A Ming Dynasty painting, donated to the Nanjing Museum but later turned up for auction, has sparked an investigation into the museum’s handling of its artefacts.
PHOTO: NANJING MUSEUM WEBSITE
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- Nanjing Museum faces scrutiny after a Ming dynasty painting, donated in 1959, disappeared and resurfaced in a Beijing auction, sparking an investigation.
- The museum claimed the painting was a forgery sold for 6,800 yuan, but the donor family disputed this, alleging damage to their reputation.
- A former museum director is under investigation for misclassifying authentic relics as forgeries for personal gain, highlighting accountability issues.
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BEIJING – Founded in 1933, the Nanjing Museum was created as a sanctuary for China’s national treasures at a moment of existential danger, housing artefacts removed from the Palace Museum in Beijing to keep them out of the hands of invading Japanese troops.
Nearly a century later, that founding mission has come under scrutiny – amid a reckoning that the gravest threat to cultural custodianship may come not from outside forces, but from within.
