The Palace Museum admitted on Sunday that a rare 1,000-year-old porcelain plate was damaged on July 4, when a laboratory researcher accidentally programmed the jaws of a testing machine to close too tight.

While the damage to the precious Song Dynasty (960-1279) ceramic from the Ge kiln is to be regretted, the museum's handling of the situation leaves much to be desired.

The public might still be in the dark about the incident, had a netizen not blown the whistle on Saturday. The museum only publicly confirmed the damage after the Internet expos, and even then did not immediately reveal how badly the plate was damaged.

The administrative measures on emergency response issued by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) explicitly stipulate that State-run cultural institutions for the collection of cultural relics should report any such incidents to the relevant administrative department for cultural relics within two hours.

This means the damage to the Ge kiln plate should have been reported to the Ministry of Culture and Beijing municipal administration of cultural heritage within two hours, and the latter should have immediately reported it to SACH.

However, the Palace Museum only submitted its investigative report to the Ministry of Culture and SACH on Sunday.

The museum said it took nearly one month to conduct an internal investigation before reporting it to the authorities and the public. It defended the delay by emphasizing the incident involved not only the damage to the cultural relic, but also the reliability of the testing equipment and the possible operational error of the researcher.

Given that the incident was exposed by a netizen, it is entirely reasonable for the public to question whether the delay was caused by the museum pursuing a rigorous investigation into the causes of the accident or by an attempt to conceal the truth.

Every cultural relic in the Palace Museum is a national treasure. The public's concern about the care given to our cultural relics shows people's pride in the nation's history and culture.

The public's right to know about the circumstances that led to the damage to this gem of Chinese culture should have been fully respected by the Palace Museum.

The museum should learn the lessons from this incident, and make sure that our invaluable antiquities are not exposed to any unnecessary risks. It should also bear in mind its historical mission to preserve the nation's cultural relics for the benefit of all and generations to come.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/03/2011 page8)