Deaccessioning in museums is the formal, permanent removal of an object from its collection, a crucial part of responsible collection management to refine focus and resources, often involving sale or transfer to another institution, with ethical rules dictating proceeds (if sold) must fund new acquisitions or collection care, not general operating costs.
博物馆藏品退出 deaccessioning 是指将藏品中某件物品正式永久地从馆藏中移除,这是负责任的藏品管理的重要组成部分,旨在优化资源配置,通常涉及出售或转让给其他机构.根据伦理规范,出售所得(如果出售)必须用于购买新的藏品或用于藏品维护,而不能用于日常运营费用.
Recently, a descendant of a donor has sued the Museum over the donation being auctioned off at a Beijing auction house for $12.5 million (¥88 m). Most people think that someone is or was lining their own pocket.
Some reports, from China Daily, CityNewsService:
- 2025-12-18 Controversy erupts as Nanjing Museum’s donated masterpiece surfaces at auction ⇓
- 2025.12.18 Investigation Underway After Nanjing Museum Scroll Turns Up at Auction
- 2025.12.19 Nanjing Museum Releases Records in Ming Painting Auction Dispute
- 2025.12.19 庞家后人庞叔令对新华社报道的声明 不公正/客观/理解/接受
- 2025-12-20 Museum’s donated painting in spotlight ⇓
Yicai 第一财经’s Post: Nanjing Museum issued a statement to explain why a collection of artworks by a Ming Dynasty painter emerged at a Beijing auction, with an estimated value of CNY88 million (USD12.5 million). Spring in Jiangnan, a Qiu Ying’s scroll painting, is among the five pieces donated by descendants of collector Peng Laichen in 1959, which were twice identified by expert panels as inauthentic in the 1960s. Therefore, the five paintings were legally deaccessioned in the 1990s, Nanjing Museum said, adding that it is cooperating with an investigation to verify the artworks’ whereabouts and strengthen oversight of donations and collections.
A few past directors of the museum, and people being mentioned,
- Zeng Zhaoyu 曾昭燏(1909—1964 suicide)
- Xu Hoping 徐湖平
Controversy erupts as Nanjing Museum’s donated masterpiece surfaces at auction
By CANG WEI in Nanjing | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2025-12-18
A celebrated painting from the Nanjing Museum’s collection has surfaced at an auction, generating widespread attention in China and raising questions about the provenance and security of valuable cultural artifacts at museums.
Pang Laichen (1864-1949) was a distinguished collector in modern China. He was famous for his collection of ancient paintings for their exceptional quality and comprehensive scope.
In the 1950s, Pang’s descendants donated numerous valuable ancient paintings and calligraphy works to several State-owned cultural institutions, with the Nanjing Museum receiving the largest portion of 137 pieces. Some of these ancient masterpieces have become the centerpiece of these institutions.
Unexpectedly, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) painting, “Jiangnan Spring” by Qiu Ying, donated to the Nanjing Museum by Pang’s descendants, appeared at an art auction in Beijing this year, with an estimated price of 88 million yuan (12.5 million).
After a report by Pang’s great-granddaughter, Pang Shuling, and intervention by national cultural authorities, the auction company withdrew the painting from sale.
Pang Shuling later filed a lawsuit against the Nanjing Museum, questioning how the donated painting ended up in the art market and demanding the return of “Jiangnan Spring” and other donated ancient paintings that have “disappeared” from the museum.
On Tuesday, Pang Shuling formally requested the court to compel the Nanjing Museum to provide detailed records of the whereabouts of the Ming Dynasty paintings donated by the Pang family.
On Wednesday, the Nanjing Museum issued a statement explaining that in January 1959, it officially received 137 paintings from the Pang family collection donated by Pang Zenghe, who was Pang Shuling’s father.
The five disputed paintings mentioned in the report were identified as forgeries by an expert panel in 1961, and again as fakes by another panel of experts in 1964. In the 1990s, the museum disposed of these five paintings in accordance with the Museum Collection Management Regulations.
The museum said it will cooperate with the legal proceedings, thoroughly investigating the whereabouts of these five paintings, and if any illegal or non-compliant actions are found during their disposal, it will cooperate with relevant authorities for strict legal handling.
On Thursday, an official from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism responded to China Newsweek, stating that a special task force led by the department has been established to jointly investigate and handle the matter.
It said that if any related illegal activities are found, they will be dealt with, and the final findings will be promptly disclosed to the public.
Museum’s donated painting in spotlight
By LIN QI and WANG KAIHAO | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2025-12-20
Nanjing Museum in East China’s Jiangsu province has presented documents to show that a presumably 16th-century Chinese landscape painting at the center of an ongoing donation controversy and lawsuits was recognized as a “forged” piece.
The response came amid growing public concerns about the whereabouts of five classical paintings which were part of a generous donation made by the descendants of noted collector Pang Laichen (1864-1949) to Nanjing Museum in 1959.
Earlier this year, the Pang family members learned that one of the “missing” paintings, titled Jiangnan Spring and attributed to Qiu Ying, a great artist of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), would be sold at a Beijing auction in May. The base price was 88 million yuan ($12.5 million). The painting was withdrawn from the salesroom before the auction after the Pang family protested.
In 2024, Pang’s family had sought to know whether the donated artworks were intact, but received no response from the museum. The family then sued Nanjing Museum and was allowed to inquire into all the 137 pieces in the 1959 donation after mediation by the court. They found that five artworks, including Jiangnan Spring, were missing from the museum’s storage.
They were told by the museum in July that the five pieces had been deemed “forged” and “reallocated” elsewhere. The reply failed to satisfy the family and the public. On Tuesday, Pang Shuling, a great-granddaughter of Pang Laichen, signed an application for enforcement to the court to compel Nanjing Museum to provide detailed records of the transfer of the five artifacts.
“The donation made by my father to Nanjing Museum in 1959 are all precious works, they are not forged,” Pang Shuling stated.
According to Xinhua News Agency on Friday, Nanjing Museum showed a document dated November 1961, saying that Jiangnan Spring was deemed duplicated by a panel consisting of three scholars with expertise in authentication. It was deemed forged by a different scholars’ panel in 1964.
Other records from the 1990s show that Jiangnan Spring was among the objects Nanjing Museum disposed of, in accordance with the country’s museum collection management regulations then and approval from the Jiangsu’s provincial cultural bureau, and were allocated to the Jiangsu Cultural Relics Store, which is now the Jiangsu Cultural Relics Store Co.
A store invoice from 2001, obtained by Xinhua, showed a commodity titled A Copy of Qiu Ying’s Jiangnan Spring was sold at 6,800 yuan to an unnamed “customer”.
A statement by Nanjing Museum on Wednesday said they were cooperating with the legal proceedings on the investigation of the whereabouts of the five paintings, and will further regulate and enforce the management of the collection.
Zhang Han, an attorney of Nanjing Museum, told Xinhua that the ownership of the painting had been transferred when it was donated, and that the donor had not retained the right for restitution, while Yin Zhijun, Pang Shuling’s attorney, said donors should have the right to know whether their donations have been maintained properly.
In 2018, the National Cultural Heritage Administration released interim measures for deaccessioning management of State-owned museum collections. Article 6 regulates that when a State-owned cultural relics collection institution intends to deaccession donated items from its collection, it shall proceed in accordance with the agreement reached with the donor(s); in the absence of such an agreement, the institution shall obtain prior consent from the donor.
“The country’s established museum industry has taken a long time to form,” Pan Shouyong, a museology professor at Shanghai University, told China Daily. “People’s understanding of what a ‘cultural relic’ is has also been constantly growing.
“It’s unfair to always use today’s guiding mindset to judge past deeds,” he said. “But neither can we conceal a past blemish if we want to achieve more.”
He called for more specific regulations concerning cultural relic collections and donations in history.
Contact the writers at linqi@chinadaily.com.cn
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