China orders nationwide museum audit after Nanjing’s US$12 million Ming artwork scandal

ourists visit Nanjing Museum in the city of the same name in China’s eastern Jiangsu province.

Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images Beijing has ordered a sweeping national inventory of all state-owned museum collections following a high-profile 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.

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.

Local authorities should “fortify the security defence line” and “elevate the overall level of museum collection safety management”, the NCHA said in a notice posted to its official social media account.

The move is a direct response to the systemic mismanagement uncovered at one of China’s top museums – the Nanjing Museum.

The scandal broke in December, months after renowned Ming dynasty painting Spring in Jiangnan surfaced at a Beijing auction, carrying an estimated value of 88 million yuan (US$12.3 million).

The artwork was part of a 137-piece collection donated in 1959 by a renowned collector for permanent preservation.

However, a court-ordered inventory initiated by his descendants revealed that five of the donated works were missing.

A months-long investigation found that in the 1990s, Xu Huping, then the museum’s vice-director, illegally approved the transfer of the paintings to a state-owned relics store.

In 1997, an employee allegedly altered the Ming painting’s price tag from 25,000 yuan to just 2,500 yuan before orchestrating its sale to an accomplice.

The work then passed through multiple private hands before reappearing at auction last year.

Of the five missing artworks, three were recovered and one was found misfiled within the museum.

The fifth one remains unaccounted for.

Xu, who led the museum from 2001 to 2005 before retiring in 2008, was placed under disciplinary review in February.

Authorities held 29 people responsible for the mismanagement and illegal sale of artefacts over several decades.

Five of them have died, leaving 24 facing serious punishment, with several cases referred to judicial authorities.

The Nanjing Museum issued a public apology to the collector’s descendants on February 9, admitting it had “betrayed the t

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