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Chinese Museum Shut After Exhibits Revealed as Forgeries

Chinese authorities have closed a museum curated by a local Communist Party boss in northern China after determining that almost all of the items in collection were fake.

Forgeries at the museum in Hebei province included an item billed as a five-color porcelain vase from the Tang Dynasty, even though the artistic technique wasn’t invented until hundreds of years later, the Shanghai Daily said in a story today. Another item was purportedly signed in simplified Chinese by an emperor said to have lived more than 3,000 years before the writing system was invented.

Residents in nearby village of Erpu had long argued that the party boss who oversaw the collection bought fake items with money raised for the museum, the Global Times newspaper said today. The museum, called Jibaozhai, was shut after photos of its exhibits appeared online with a story questioning their authenticity, the newspaper said.

The official Xinhua News agency reported that the museum was founded with a 50 million-yuan investment. A story on Sina.com included photographs of figurines on display with the caption “fake collections.”