CHINA'S JIBOAZHAI MUSEUM CLOSED AFTER ARTIFACTS DISCOVERED TO BE FAKE
Fakes are nothing new in China. From fake Apple stores & fake Ikea stores to fake rice made from plastic and even fake cities, almost everyday there is something new in China that is being faked, including & especially antiques. So it’s no surprise that there are also museums which are filled with fakes as well.
The Jibaozhai Museum, located in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, opened in 2010 with its 12 exhibition halls packed with apparently unique cultural gems. But the museum’s collection, while extensive, appears ultimately to have been flawed. On Monday, the museum’s ticket offices were shut amid claims that many of the exhibits were knock-offs that had been bought for between 100 yuan and 2,000 yuan.
However, this is a more complex story then it seems. Private museums are a sort of “rich man’s fad” that has popped up in China over the last ten years or so (with some of them being quite odd like the obscure Chinese businessmen museum). In fact, this trend has been reflected in the market shift in that the main buyers of Chinese antiques are now the Chinese themselves. And the reasons for opening such museums are many ranging from “gaining face,” to tax breaks, national pride to even money laundering. So it’s possible Wang Zonquan (王宗泉) knew the items in his Ji Bao Zhai museum (冀宝斋博物馆) were fake and simply lost face when he was found out (and later died from loosing face).
Wei Yingjun, a consultant to the Jibaozhai Museum in Jizhou, about 150 miles south of Beijing, insists the situation is not that bad. He is "quite positive" that 80 or even more pieces out of tens of thousands in the museum are authentic.
Anyways, here is full coverage of this story in English. Makes for some interesting reading:
- https://nationalpost.com/news/chinese-museum-forced-to-close-after-discovery-its-40000-piece-collection-of-ancient-relics-are-fake
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10182088/Chinese-museum-found-with-40000-fake-exhibits-forced-to-close.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/jul/17/jibaozhai-museum-closed-fakes-china
Related Books
As always in China – be on the lookout for fakes! Some really great breakdowns and analysis of the fakes can be found here in Chinese:
