Nanjing Museum's handling of donated art, relics being probed

The National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Jiangsu provincial government launched investigations on Tuesday related to the management and handling of donated cultural relics at the Nanjing Museum, as well as other concerns about the safety of the museum's collection.

The administration said it has established and dispatched a "special team" to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, to investigate a dispute concerning a donated landscape painting that used to be in the museum's collection and had been attributed to Qiu Ying, an artist from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The investigations were launched to address rising public concerns and media coverage regarding the painting, titled Jiangnan Spring, which was donated to the Nanjing Museum in the 1950s. Earlier this year, it was discovered that the painting was to be auctioned in Beijing.

Furthermore, the Jiangsu provincial Party committee and the provincial government of Jiangsu formed a separate investigation team to address issues related to the management and handling of items donated to the Nanjing Museum, as well as other concerns about the safety of its collection.

The provincial investigation team consists of members from the commission for discipline inspection, the supervisory commission, and the departments of publicity, political and legal affairs, public security, culture and tourism, and cultural heritage.

According to a statement from provincial authorities, the investigation will examine the custody and disposal of donated cultural relics at the Nanjing Museum, as well as other potential security concerns. It said that any violations or misconduct will be dealt with strictly and without leniency, and the findings and any subsequent actions will be made public in a timely manner.

In 1959, the descendants of noted collector Pang Laichen (1864-1949) donated 137 classical artworks to the Nanjing Museum, including the purported Jiangnan Spring.

The museum announced on Dec 17 that it had initiated an internal review regarding the dispute involving Pang's descendants.

The museum recently presented old documents that said Jiangnan Springand four other paintings, all from the Pang family donation, were deemed by scholars with expertise in authentication to be forgeries. They were removed from the museum's inventory in 1997, and were later allocated to a publicly owned cultural relic store.

A painting labeled A Copy of Qiu Ying's Jiangnan Springwas sold at the store in 2001.

The Nanjing Museum, which houses more than 430,000 cultural relics, is one of the largest provincial-level museums in China.