A Chinese museum has been ordered to close after thousands of its historical exhibits were found to be fake, state-run media said today.
Police shut down the Lucheng Museum, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, after finding that almost one-third of the 8,000 items on display were not genuine, the Global Times newspaper reported.
Counterfeits on show included a sword touted as dating from the Qing dynasty and worth 120 million yuan (HK$151 million), the report said.
China is on a museum-building spree, with 299 new establishments registering last year, according to state media.
But its antiques market is said to be rife with fakes, posing a problem for the country’s growing ranks of private collectors.
A Chinese tycoon who has two museums is embroiled in a row with experts from the state-backed Shanghai Museum over the authenticity of a scroll he paid more than US$8 million for at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.