China orders Nationwide Museum Audit after Nanjing’s US$12 Million Ming Artwork Scandal
Beijing has ordered a national inventory of all state-owned museum collections following a scandal at a top museum, where former officials illegally sold donated national treasures for personal gain over several decades.
The National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) announced the nationwide campaign on Wednesday, according to Hong Kong newspaper South Morning China Post.
It mandates that every state-owned museum conduct a meticulous, piece-by-piece physical count of its collections this year, verifying every artefact against official records to ensure that accounts match physical objects.
The directive, issued by the National Cultural Heritage Administration, requires every state-owned museum to conduct a physical, item-by-item inventory of its collections, checking each object against official records. The goal is simple: make sure what’s on paper actually exists in storage.
The move follows months of fallout from the Nanjing Museum, where investigators uncovered decades of mismanagement and alleged corruption involving donated artworks that were never meant to leave public hands.
Main Image: Nanjing Museum