As one of the most extensive collections of artifacts in China, it has long been anyone’s guess at how many “members” are in the Palace Museum’s “family of relics.” Ahead of International Museum Day on May 18, Palace Museum director Shan Jixiang answered this question by confirming the museum has a total of 1,807,558 relics.

Some 1,684,490 of these relics have been earmarked for national protection, accounting for 42 percent of the total in this category held by Chinese museums. But how long would be needed to display all these relics based on current exhibition scales?

Shan said the annual exhibition capacity of around 10,000 relics at the Palace Museum means it would take about 100 years to exhibit all of the site’s 1,807,558 relics. But the situation is better than it might sound for people wanting a glimpse of the treasures.

From the second half of next year, the allocation of exhibition areas at the Palace Museum will increase from 52 percent to 65 percent, eventually reaching 76 percent in a few years’ time. A new large museum at the north side of the Palace Museum is currently under construction, which will further expand exhibition space.

Such a large-scale collection presents challenges for preservation and maintenance. Shan said that a storeroom built in the 1990s can hold a total of 900,000 relics, but noted its condition lags far behind required standards.

About 1 million relics have suffered from rot, erosion, cracking and other natural damage, leaving them in urgent need of restoration. “Existing technology and professional capabilities are too weak, making preservation and restoration of these relics in the short term hard to achieve,” said Shan.

Shan also said that the “Safe Palace Museum” project approved by the State Council in April 2013 would gradually eliminate seven major potential safety hazards, including fire, theft, earthquake, natural relic deterioration, storage problems and visitor safety issues.

The Chinese link: http://www.chinanews.com/cul/2014/05-19/6184919.shtml

Translated by Du Mei

　　Revised by Tom Fearon