Nanjing Museum Releases Records in Ming Painting Auction Dispute

Nanjing Museum has released decades-old expert appraisal records and procedural documents after a Ming Dynasty painting once in its collection surfaced at auction with an estimated price of 88 million yuan (US$12 million), reigniting public debate over how state-owned museums handle donated artworks.

The dispute centers on Spring in Jiangnan, a handscroll attributed to Ming painter Qiu Ying (1494–1552), which appeared earlier this year at a Beijing auction. The work was originally among 137 ancient paintings donated in 1959 by the family of Pang Laichen, a prominent collector active in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the Republic of China period (1912-1949).

In materials provided to Xinhua News Agency, the Nanjing Museum said the painting underwent two expert appraisals in the early 1960s, both concluding that the work was a forgery.

The first appraisal, conducted in November 1961 by a national panel organized by the former Ministry of Culture and including noted connoisseurs Zhang Heng, Han Shenxian and Xie Zhiliu, concluded that the handscroll was a forgery, albeit a finely executed one. The experts determined that the front inscription by Chen Liu was authentic, while the later inscriptions and colophons were inconsistent.

A second appraisal in June 1964, carried out by another expert panel including Wang Dunhua, Xu Yunqiu and Xu Xinnong, reached the same conclusion, again identifying the work as a forgery.

Pang Shuling, Pang Laichen's great-granddaughter, has publicly questioned the museum's handling of the donated works in previous interviews with The Paper. She said her family donated only genuine and high-quality artworks and rejected the museum's later determination that five of the donated pieces, including Spring in Jiangnan, were forgeries. After the donation, she added, the museum issued formal receipts.

In June 2025, Pang Shuling and her lawyer inspected the museum's storage facilities and found that 132 of the original 137 donated works remained in the collection, while five – including Spring in Jiangnan–were missing. The museum later confirmed in writing that these five works had been removed from the collection after being identified as forgeries and were subsequently "allocated and transferred" in accordance with regulations in place at the time.

On November 20, 2025, Pang filed a lawsuit against the Nanjing Museum, demanding clarification on the exact whereabouts of the five disputed works and seeking their return. During the court hearing, her request for an immediate explanation of the works' circulation was withdrawn, with plans to pursue compulsory disclosure through separate legal procedures.

According to historical records cited by Xinhua, following the issuance of the Measures for the Administration of Museum Collections in 1986, the museum reviewed items deemed unsuitable for long-term preservation. In April 1997, it sought approval from the former Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture to transfer such works to the provincial cultural relics store. Approval was granted, and on May 8, 1997, Spring in Jiangnan formally exited the museum's collection under the designation "Imitation of Qiu Ying Landscape Scroll."

Sales records show that in April 2001, the work was sold by the former Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Store for 6,800 yuan, identified as an imitation rather than an authentic masterpiece by Qiu Ying.

Pang's lawyer argues that donors' families have the right to be informed when donated works are removed from museum collections and that museums should prioritize returning such items if they choose not to retain them. The museum's legal counsel, however, maintains that ownership transferred to the state upon donation and that there was no contractual provision requiring the return of the works.

Cultural authorities in Jiangsu Province have since launched a joint investigation into the case. Officials told China Newsweek that further information will be released as the investigation proceeds.