A warning for future work
The porcelain plate that was damaged this time, and nine other pieces collected by the Palace Museum, are products from the Ge Kiln, the most coveted of kilns by collectors in China. In 2004, one plate of this kind was sold for 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) and in 2008, another plate was sold for 20 million ($3.1 million).
As a grade-one cultural relic held in the Palace Museum, the value of these plates can be predicted to be at over 20 million yuan. The damage, which broke the plate into six pieces, is quite large.
"Although experts are confident in their ability to repair this plate, it is still a loss of the plate as a whole," said Li Yanjun, an industry expert.
This incident will inevitably teach a lesson to the Palace Museum, but the damage does not mean that the museum will give up the chance to do scientific research and analysis on cultural relics.
"The museum has been doing research on ancient relics for years, which helps to better understand the relics and protect them," said Miao. "It is pity that this incident happened, but the museum will not stop researching ancient relics."
What the museum and the researchers will do is be more careful with relics and find a method to prevent further incidents.
The trouble-plagued Palace Museum
As a world-renowned museum, the Palace Museum is often talked about by people who love exhibitions in the museum. But beginning this past May, the miserable fate of the museum has been under heated discussion.
This May, the museum was burglarized by a lone thief who made off with nine gold and jewel-encrusted purses and mirrored compact cases that were on loan from the private collection of the Hong Kong Liang Yi Museum to the Palace Museum.
This incident raised doubts from the public about the security system of the Palace Museum. Although the lost pieces were finally found and the exhibition continued as planned, it was still an embarrassment for the museum.
Soon after the robbery, the Palace Museum was made the butt of another joke when they wrote the wrong word on a silk banner which was supposed to be a present to the police for helping the museum solve the case.
The character used wrongly on the banner provided another "opportunity" for people to laugh at the Palace Museum and pushed the museum again into the eye of the public.
