Beijing:
A Chinese museum has been ordered to close after thousands of its historical exhibits were found to be fake, state-run media said on Thursday.
Police shut down the Lucheng Museum, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, after finding that almost a 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 ($19 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 $8 million for at a Sotheby's auction in New York.
Separately, last year a museum in the central province of Henan was found to contain scores of fake exhibits, including a vase decorated with cartoon characters but described as a Qing dynasty artefact.
Pictures posted by the state-run China Radio International (CRI) showed the vase decorated with bright green cartoon animals, including a creature resembling a laughing squid.
"Similar fake museums are found in many places in China in search of monetary gain," CRI quoted Chinese antiques expert Ma Weidu as saying at the time.
Police shut down the Lucheng Museum, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, after finding that almost a 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 ($19 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 $8 million for at a Sotheby's auction in New York.
Separately, last year a museum in the central province of Henan was found to contain scores of fake exhibits, including a vase decorated with cartoon characters but described as a Qing dynasty artefact.
Pictures posted by the state-run China Radio International (CRI) showed the vase decorated with bright green cartoon animals, including a creature resembling a laughing squid.
"Similar fake museums are found in many places in China in search of monetary gain," CRI quoted Chinese antiques expert Ma Weidu as saying at the time.
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