National Palace Museum director speaks to lawmakers about broken artifacts

The director of National Palace Museum on Tuesday went to the Legislative Yuan to report on the museum’s measures to be more transparent about damages and repairs to the museum’s collection. The report comes amid claims that the museum had tried to cover up stories of mishaps. Museum director Wu Mi-cha said investigations had revealed that one of the broken ceramic pieces that recently caught media attention had been broken due to negligence. That’s in contrast with a Qing-era painting that was cut intentionally to fit a display case. To increase transparency, Wu says the museum will make public documentation on all the items damaged and restored since 1959.

This is a Qing dynasty era painting of the old floating bridge that crossed the Yellow River in the Chinese city of Lanzhou. It was recently reported that the National Palace Museum, where the piece is housed, had cropped the painting to fit it into a display case. Museum director Wu Mi-cha on Tuesday reported on the issue at the legislature.

Wu Mi-cha
National Palace Museum director
This is a very serious mistake. It’s also different from what happened recently when artifacts were damaged due to negligence. This was a case of someone giving an order to cut the painting.

Wu promised the museum would make public as much information as it can about damaged artifacts. He added that one of the three broken items recently reported on by local media had been broken due to neglect, but details on how other two items were damaged remain unclear. The Control Yuan has also launched its own investigation into the matter. Lawmaker Huang Kuo-shu said records show that 359 items have been repaired by the museum to date, and asked why the public was not informed when those items were damaged.

Wu Mi-cha
National Palace Museum director
You can now look at the records of restorations done over the past several decades. That information is completely open to the public.

With three items having been found damaged in the course of one year, some have questioned whether there is a problem with the museum’s operational procedures. DPP Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien has suggested a reshuffle of the museum’s personnel.

Su Tseng-chang
Premier
A reshuffle will happen anyway as part of the Executive Yuan’s next reorganization. It doesn’t need to be done more urgently than that. What matters is that the museum can operate well, that’s the top priority.

The premier said the Executive Yuan respected the museum’s operational model, but that it also strongly supported change where change is needed.

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