The National Palace Museum in Taipei was exposed to three damaged cultural relics, a blue-and-white flower plate was broken into several pieces, and the cause of the damage was exposed.
China News Service, October 28th. According to comprehensive Taiwan media reports, Kuomintang “legislator” Chen Yixin broke the news on the 28th that the National Palace Museum in Taipei broke the treasured cultural relics, causing an uproar on the island. Wu Micha, director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, held a press conference and said that everything was reported and investigated in accordance with procedures, and that he was not concealed. Photos of the three damaged cultural relics were also exposed. Among them, the artificially damaged “Qianlong Blue and White Flower Plate” was broken into several pieces and some fine pieces.
Wu Micha said at the press conference today that none of these three cultural relics have ever been exhibited. When the staff of the Ceramics Section of the Artifacts Department of the National Palace Museum in Taipei were sorting the cultural relics, they found the cultural relics after opening the packages on February 3 last year and April 7 this year respectively. The “Ming Hongzhi style small yellow and green colored double dragon bowl” and the “Qing dynasty Kangxi style dark dragon white small yellow porcelain bowl” were damaged.
Wu Micha said that when his colleagues opened the package, they found that the cultural relics were damaged. Afterwards, they checked the monitor and launched an investigation to confirm that it was not human negligence.
As for the other “Qianlong blue-and-white flower plate”, Wu Micha said frankly that when the cultural relics were sorted out on May 19 this year, the Forbidden City staff accidentally dropped the cultural relics from the workbench to the ground during the work on the workbench, damaging them. The fragments of cultural relics are preserved, and he has confirmed to his colleagues that they can be repaired in the future.
As for the restoration progress, Wu Micha said that the “Ming Hongzhi style small yellow and green color double dragon bowl” is being restored, the “Qing dynasty Kangxi style dark dragon white small yellow porcelain bowl” is waiting for the restoration personnel to deal with, the third “Qianlong Qing Dynasty” “Blue-and-white flower plate” must be inspected and repaired only after the punishment procedure is completed and the responsibilities are clarified.
In addition, Ma Wenjun, a “legislator” of the Kuomintang, urged the “Supervisory Yuan” and the procuratorial department to investigate the damage to three cultural relics in the Taipei Palace Museum. In this regard, Su Zhenchang, the head of Taiwan’s administrative department, said that the National Palace Museum in Taipei will not have any concealment. If there is any responsibility, it will never cover up.
Wu Micha said that when he received it, he immediately ordered it to be handed over to the Political Style Office to investigate whether there were any violations and violations. According to the investigation results of the Political Style Office, the damages on February 3, 2021 and April 7, 2022 were found to be no personnel negligence; on May 19, 2022, it was clear that the operation was negligent, and the whole case had been transferred to the performance appraisal committee. The punishment procedure Engraving is in progress.
Regarding the rumored value of the three cultural relics as high as NT$2.5 billion, Wu Micha only said that he was inconvenient to disclose the price, but it was definitely far less than 2.5 billion. But he admitted frankly that the value must be reduced after damage. Taiwan’s “United Daily News” reported that according to people familiar with the matter, the combined value of these three cultural relics is definitely more than NT$200 million.
Wu Micha said that none of these three cultural relics have been exhibited before, and there is no insurance. He also said that since the packaging method of the National Palace Museum porcelain in Taipei is outdated, it is still stored in one box with multiple items and multiple boxes in one box. In the future, the box will be converted into a cabinet, and a piece of cultural relic will be used as the storage unit. Next year’s budget will also specially compile a porcelain warehouse The budget of the packaging improvement plan, and the establishment of an information computer management system to record computerized records of the extraction and status of cultural relics.