China’s Nanjing Museum artwork scandal probe uncovers historic mismanagement, corruption

The scandal broke in late December when reports alleged that Nanjing Museum in eastern Jiangsu province had secretly sold donated paintings, prompting an investigation that focused on a former director accused of mishandling the artworks.

The controversy centres on five paintings among a 137-piece collection donated by the family of collector Pang Laichen in 1959 with the intention of being preserved within the museum. But they were found to be missing during a court-ordered inventory check last June following a request filed by Pang’s descendants.

In early 2025, one of the works, the renowned Ming dynasty painting Spring in Jiangnan by Qiu Ying, surfaced at an auction with an estimated value of 88 million yuan (US$12.7 million). This prompted Pang’s great-granddaughter, Pang Shuling, to alert authorities and demand documentation from the museum on the artwork’s handling. The family’s protests led to the painting being withdrawn from sale.

The months-long probe – which involved more than 1,100 interviews and the review of 65,000 archival documents – found that some of the five works in question were illegally transferred, sold or lost over the decades, according to a report released on Monday evening by Jiangsu provincial authorities, under the guidance of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

The investigation found that in the 1990s, then museum vice-director Xu Huping violated procedures to approve the transfer of the five donated paintings to the state-owned Jiangsu provincial cultural relics store for sale.