Archeological Gumption



So genuine looking...

The Jibaozhai Museum, a sterling institution in the northern Chinese province of Hebie, was closed a few days ago after claims hit the internet that most of its supposedly ancient relics are fakes. You can enjoy pictures of their not really very old at all vases here.

 All very terrible archeologically speaking, of course, but reading about it in the Age on the way home I had to giggle at one of the museum's chief consultants admitting that the museum did not in fact have the proper provincial authorisation to operate, and then going on to say he was "quite positive" at least 80 of the museum's 40,000 objects had been confirmed as authentic.

80. Out of 40,000. Well, that makes the whole thing go away, doesn't it?

Best of all, said consultant wants to sue the blogger who uncovered the scandal. Because, like, it's true, the museum is full of knock-offs. And mostly bad ones at that. So that's what you do when you're exposed as a criminal. You sue the accuser, even when you've admitted the accusation is true. Well, except for those 80 possibly genuine relics.