Struggling Curators

A museum sponsored by a village in north China’s Hebei Province has been shut down amid allegations that all is not what it seems when it comes to the ancient porcelain pieces on display.

Open to the public since July 2010， the Jibaozhai Museum in Erpu Village， Jizhou City， has 12 exhibition halls full of what it claimed were unique cultural gems.

However， the authenticity of its exhibited items had been challenged by renowned China experts. The village museum’s academic rigor went unnoticed until a blog post about a visit to the museum went viral.

On July 7， prominent writer Ma Boyong posted a parody Life of Ma in a nod to the famous fantasy adventure novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel implying that the only thing more unbelievable than a castaway sharing a boat with a live tiger was the appalling fakery exhibited at the village museum.

Among the inconsistencies writer Ma noted was an item that claimed to be produced during the reign of Yongzheng Emperor （1722-35） of the Qing Dynasty （1644-1911） featuring female characters from Dream of the Red Chamber， a pinnacle of Chinese fiction written in the 1780s.

There was also an alleged Tang Dynasty（618-907） porcelain vase that features a fivecolor pattern， despite the fact this technique was invented hundreds of years later during the Ming Dynasty （1368-1644）.

During the discussions following Ma’s article， experts alleged that many of the items in Jibaozhai are actually knock-offs worth between 100 yuan （$16） and 2，000 yuan （$327）.

On July 10， the Jizhou City Government announced an investigation into forgeries housed by the museum.

Collector of the untrue

Wang Zongquan， a village head in Eupu for four decades， has played a pivotal role in founding Jibaozhai. Wang， an enthusiastic collector of ancient Chinese porcelain himself and curator of the museum， spent a total of 20 million yuan（$3.26 million） from the village’s treasury over the past three decades in acquiring the collection. The addition to the collection stopped several years ago due to a tightened budget.

In China， villages are run by “self-governing villagers’ committees，” thus the “village museum” is legally a private entity.

The Museum’s chief consultant Wei Yingjun said that he was positive that many of the 40，000 objects in its collection were authentic and those described in the blog were merely a minority whose authenticity was deemed questionable by the museum itself.

“We still exhibit them because we want visitors to help verify their actual dates of production，”Wei told newspaper Time Weekly.

Wei said that another reason behind the widespread forgery among the museum’s collection is that identification and verification by experts would have cost 40 million yuan （$6.53 million）.

According to Wei， the museum’s annual operational expense tops 3 million yuan （$489，600） and receives only 800，000 yuan （$130，560） in government subsidies every year. Before its closure， the museum had relied on the village’s treasury to meet its deficit as ticket revenue is insignificant. Wei said that the museum’s first rectification move was to send 1，000 exhibited items for identification as they could not afford more.

The scandal over the village museum sheds light on difficulties faced by private museums around China. A relatively new breed， many private museums are struggling financially due to the lack of stable sources of funding in China. Very few of them have a modern management methods to survive.

Survival pressure

China’s first private museum came into being in Shanghai in 1992. According to statistics by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage， China had a total of 3，589 museums at the end of 2011， of which 14.9 percent or 535 were privately funded.

Peng Feng， Dean of the Department of Art Theory， History and Criticism at the School of Arts of Peking University， said that the development of private museums in China lags far behind their counterparts in Europe and the United States.

Even in metropolitan areas of China such as Beijing and Shanghai where private museums are relatively mature， their daily expenses are mainly paid by their wealthy owners.

The Red Sandalwood Museum established by real estate tycoon Chen Lihua in Beijing is one of the biggest private museums in China. The museum accommodates nearly 1，000 pieces of red sandalwood furniture and sculpture.

Chen had invested more than 200 million yuan （$32.64 million） in her 25，000-square-meter museum before it opened to the public in 1999. The museum’s annual operational expenses stand around 20 million yuan， mainly coming out of Chen’s pocket. A miniature sandalwood-and-ebony Yongding Gate， a model of one of old Beijing’s city gates， was added to the museum’s collection in January and is said to cost more than 100 million yuan （$16.32 million） in wood alone.

As one of China’s earliest private museums， the Guanfu Museum was founded by writer and collector Ma Weidu in Beijing in 1996. It is divided into sections， showcasing furniture， oil paintings， porcelain and other items. Guanfu operates with public donations， similar to many of its counterparts in the West. It is also one of the few private museums in China that has introduced a board system.

Ma told Beijing-based Guangming Daily that as far as he knows his museum is the only private museum in China turning a profit without any backing by a company. However， the profits have also given his museum a financial burden because they are taxed as corporate income. Over the years， Ma’s museum has paid a total of 1 million yuan （$163，000） in taxes， though under Chinese laws， private museums are categorized as “private non-business entities，”which technically means they can enjoy tax breaks， subsidies and other favorable government policies.

Meanwhile， an ancient pottery museum in Beijing faces a gloomy future since its founder Lu Dongzhi died in 2011. “With my husband’s death， the reliable source of funding is gone，”said Dong Rui， Lu’s widow who has since assumed curatorship. Tickets to this museum in the corner of a park are priced at 50 yuan （$8）. However， ticket revenue is still far from covering the museum’s annual operational expenses of 500，000 yuan （$81，600）.

“Our friends used to tell us that it is a luxurious hobby to establish and run a museum， but I don’t know what the museum’s future is. I’m doing my best to keep the door open，” Dong said.

Government incentives

In cities like Beijing， the government has started to subsidize private museums. For example， Beijing’s Chaoyang District， which has 18 registered private museums or three fourths of the city’s total， has encouraged the development of private museums since 2011.

The district government has earmarked a fund of 2 million yuan （$323，000） to support private museums every year.

Nationally， the State Administration of Cultural Heritage， the State Administration of Taxation and five ministries jointly issued a document on promoting the development of private museums in January 2010. One clause says that the government shall offer private museums practical help to find venues and funding. However， this policy has not been implemented fully in some parts of the country.

“The level of its implementation is closely linked to a region’s economic development and local people’s cultural demands，” said Zhao Shuguang， chief of the Museums Department of the Cultural Heritage Bureau of north China’s Shanxi Province. He said that while governments in wealthier regions are generous in supporting private museums， in poorer regions even state-owned museums can hardly make ends meet due to the lack of government funding.

Chen Qingyun is the founding curator of a museum in Shanxi’s Yongji City that exhibits his personal collection of ancient porcelain， pottery and weapons. Since he sold his only apartment to support the establishment of his museum in 2001， he has hardly benefitted from any support or incentives from the government. To support himself， Chen has partnered with other historical attractions in the city to house his collection and relies on ticket revenue divided between him and his partners as the only source of his income. To expand his collection， Chen was forced to auction some exhibits and borrow money from friends.

Chen’s largest concern is finding his collection a new home after the contract with the current partner terminates in October. “I am a bit burnt out.”