DPP legislator Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) yesterday said he suspects that some of the staff members of the National Taiwan Museum have helped to steal some of the museum pieces.
He said that a large number of Taiwanese cultural relics are missing from the museum's store rooms.
"According to my understanding, there are staff members within the museum who are collaborating with outside antique merchants," said Chen, during his inventory visit to the museum's storage area, located on Taipei City's Chingtien Street.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
By Chen's request, James An (安奎), director of the National Taiwan Museum, and Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), vice chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs, were also present at the site during Chen's inventory visit yesterday.
"It is unacceptable," Chen said as he spoke of the museum's dismal inventory monitoring practices.
"Based on the inventory list I have here, there are at least a thousand historical and cultural relics that are missing from the museum's store room -- some of these are being replaced," said Chen.
He added that relics such as weaponry, paintings and Aboriginal crafts comprised most of these pieces.
"For example, according to the inventory list, there is supposed to be one original Aboriginal costume from early in the last century. But now the original is missing and has been replaced with a modern reproduction," he said.
"It has been almost fifty years now [since the museum was taken over from the Japanese]," Chen said. "Yet, in all this time, the museum still hasn't finished listing items that are included in a collection of more than 25,000 relics contained in this storage room."
Chen based his estimate on historical figures that describe how the museum, Taiwan's oldest, was taken over from the Japanese in 1945 with approximately 50,000 cultural and historical relics.
"It is just simply ridiculous that all these cultural relics are locked inside the storage room instead of being out there in the museum for public display and appreciation," Chen said.
In response to the dissatisfaction that Chen expressed over the way the museum managed its collection, Wu said that the council would assign a task force within the next week to look into the matter.
Meanwhile, An said that it is his goal to completely finish the museum's inventory work within the next two years -- as well as to improve the condition of the storage room.
"Since the inventory work has not been finished, I cannot say for certain if museum members have done anything [illegal]," An said.
"However," he added, "if it is found that illegal dealings have taken place, the museum would definitely not hide it from the public."
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,