Reported at The Telegraph (UK) online:
Chinese museum shut over fakes
A museum in China has been told to close after almost a third of its exhibits were found to be fake
By Oliver Smith, and agencies
11:52AM BST 22 May 2014
According to the Global Times newspaper, Lucheng Museum, in the province of Liaoning, was investigated by police who found thousands of counterfeits among its collection of 8,000 items.
The counterfeits included a sword supposedly from the Qing Dynasty, and claimed to be worth 120 million yuan (£11m).
Around 300 new museums have been built in the last year, according to Chinese state media, but the closure is likely to raise further doubts about the authenticity of their exhibits. Experts have already warned that China’s antiques market is rife with fakes.
Last year the 60 million yuan (£6.4 million) Jibaozhai Museum, located in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, shut its doors amid claims that many of its cultural treasures were in fact forgeries.
No comments:
Post a Comment