A scandal engulfing the Nanjing Museum has escalated from a dispute over a single painting into a sweeping corruption probe, following a bombshell “real-name” report by a retired employee.
On 21 December – just days after the museum came under fire for a donated Ming dynasty masterpiece resurfacing at a Beijing auction – a former staff member released a video on WeChat accusing former director Xu Huping of orchestrating the theft and smuggling of thousands of national treasures.
According to the allegations, Xu – who led the museum until 2005 – systematically reclassified genuine artifacts, including imperial items evacuated from the Palace Museum during World War II, as fakes in order to sell them for personal profit. Multiple attempts by China Newsweek to contact the provincial department of culture and tourism reportedly went unanswered.
The spark: a "fake" worth US$12 million
The controversy began earlier this spring, when Spring in Jiangnan (Jiangnan Chun), attributed to Ming dynasty master Qiu Ying, appeared in a China Guardian auction preview in Beijing. The scroll carried a staggering estimate of RMB 88 million (around US$12 million).
Its provenance immediately raised red flags in the Chinese art world. The painting was once part of the renowned “Xuzhai” collection of Pang Laichen (1864-1949), a prominent industrialist and collector. In 1959, Pang’s family donated 137 works – including Spring in Jiangnan – to the Nanjing Museum.
In 2024, Pang’s...
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