China News Service, November 2, According to Taiwan's China Times, recently, the decision of Taipei Palace Museum will not renew the contract for the "Lan Qianshan Pavilion" cultural relics after the expiration of the period, which shocked the cultural relics and museum circles. Some scholars and experts on the island analyzed that Mr. Lin Boshou's "Lan Qianshan Pavilion" is not only a sky-high treasure that is difficult to obtain, but the descendants of the Lin family also have the mentality of sending to donate instead of giving. The outside world does not understand why the Taipei Palace Museum is against the global museum business trend. Not only does it not "guaranteed the capital" but also voluntarily "loss the capital", which leads to these treasures likely to enter the auction market. The Taipei Palace Museum may not borrow it even if it wants to borrow it.
"Lan Qianshan Pavilion" small file, the 1 million in the picture is New Taiwan dollars . Taiwan's China Times mapped by
"Limited warehouse space" or "calculate management fees"?
According to previous reports, the director of the Palace Museum in Taipei, Wu Micha, decided not to renew the contract after the expiration of the period for the cultural relics, including the well-known "Lan Qianshan Pavilion" cultural relics. Among them, the most representative "Lanting on Yellow Silk on Chu Suiliang of Tang Dynasty" and "Tang Huaisu's Thousand Characters of Little Grass" are priceless treasures.
The so-called "reservation" means that folk collectors authorize cultural relics to be kept and exhibited for free by the Palace Museum in Taipei, but the name of the depositor must be marked. This is a glory for collectors. It not only encourages the public to share collections, but also provides the most complete and professional preservation of cultural relics, and provides audiences with diverse visiting content.
Taipei Palace Museum claims that it is no longer accepted for storage because the warehouse space is limited. However, the "new plan" that cost billions of NT$ is mainly about expanding space. It is understood that grassroots professionals at the Palace Museum in Taipei believe that the contract should be renewed, but Wu Micha "resisted the opposition" and insisted on sweeping the storage items out.
Wu Micha. Photo by Taiwan United Daily News Photo by Su Jianzhong
Some people questioned that long-term storage of cultural relics is to use public resources to benefit the private sector, and the purpose of adding value is the private sector. A person from the Taipei Palace Museum, who once participated in the curation and maintenance of cultural relics of the "Lan Qianshan Pavilion", pointed out that not only the initial donor Lin Boshou originally intended to temporarily donate this batch of cultural relics instead of giving, but the attitude of the Lin family can also show that he is willing to keep the cultural relics forever.
Relevant persons pointed out that the cultural relics of the "Lan Qianshan Pavilion" and the cultural relics stored in the Lin family were originally managed separately. They were only changed to merged management when they were re-signed in 2016 and signed once every five years. Although internal personnel thought it was inappropriate, they still respected the decisions of the senior management.
Data photo: Taipei Palace Museum. Photo by Liewei
Now, while the Taipei Palace Museum took the initiative to not renew the contract, it stated to the public that "the depositor is willing to donate, and the collection collection procedure will be initiated." Taipei Palace Museum people sighed that the donation and collection purchase cases have been almost stopped in recent years, but drove away the "Lan Qianshan Pavilion" that has "coexisted" for 55 years on the grounds that the warehouse cannot be put down. Can the sky-high cultural relics that cannot be purchased by the Palace Museum in Taipei have the right to be developed and researched, but they have to care about the management fees for storage?
Scholars in the museum industry lament that this move is too high and there is a sense of extortion from everyone to donate. This will affect the future willingness of collectors and will not be conducive to future development.
Experts are worried: treasures may enter the auction market
Industry insiders familiar with the global art market pointed out that "reservation" is a necessary and important business strategy in major museums. Taking the Van Gogh Museum in Netherlands as an example, more than 300 of the more than 500 works are deposited. For museums, budgets can be made up year by year before collection. For private collectors, there are many successors in the descendants of depositors, and their opinions are easy to be different, and donation is difficult, so depositing is a more flexible way of donation.
Museum scholars analyzed that when faced with deposit cases, they may not only think from the perspective of administrative and warehouse sorting. How to make the museum play its social responsibility and maximize the benefits of rare cultural relics is also an important perspective of thinking.
A person from the Palace Museum in Taipei pointed out that the cultural relics of Lanqianshan Pavilion were originally accompanied by NT$1 million exhibition fees with the cultural relics. For many years, there was a fixed deposit interest on the maintenance fee of the museum, ranging from hundreds of thousands or even millions per transaction. Now, while returning the cultural relics stored, more than one million yuan has been refunded, which can be said to be "reimbursed both the wife and the army."
Lan Qianshan Museum was included in the first few years since the opening of the Palace Museum in Taipei. No matter how the warehouse is renovated for decades, these cultural relics have been taken into consideration. Most of the cultural relics of calligraphy and painting are scrolls, and the space occupied is limited. Now the contract is not renewed with the "limited warehouse space". Another hidden worry is that if the descendants of the Lin family are unable to take care of this batch of cultural relics, or if many cultural relics of the family members are difficult to divide evenly, it is very likely that these treasures will enter the auction market, and the Taipei Palace Museum may not be able to borrow the exhibition.
