NPM Admits One of the Damaged Artifacts 'Human Error' 乾隆青花花卉盤破「人為疏失」 故宮懲處2人

The punishment decision has been released for two National Palace Museum employees who were held accountable for breaking a Qing Dynasty artifact. Museum Director Wu Mi-cha, meanwhile, apologized to the public for the incident.

Wu Mi-cha, Director of National Palace Museum: “We are sincerely very sorry and regret that such an unfortunate event happened at the National Palace Museum. However, we hope that people can understand, damage to artifacts is inevitable.”

While apologizing for the breakage of the National Palace Museum artifacts, Director of NPM Wu Mi-cha appeared on Public Television Service show PTSTalk on Nov. 3 to restore the circumstances leading up to the breaking of the Qing Dynasty Qianlong blue and white floral porcelain plate, the only artifact among the three that was deemed broken by "human error."

Wu Mi-cha, Director of National Palace Museum: “The cloth at the bottom of the blue cloth box was peeling off a bit, so he tried to glue it back, and while flipping the box over, two artifacts fell out. He caught one with his body so it did not fall to the ground, but the other one, unfortunately, fell to the ground and broke.”

While a National Palace museum staff in the porcelain department was sorting out the artifacts, there were six artifacts in a brocade box and someone had taken out four artifacts without telling others that there are still two remaining, and without being tied up; as such another staff, unaware that there were still artifacts in the box, was trying to glue back the cloth at the bottom of the brocade box so flipped the box over and accidentally let the two artifacts drop out. While one was fortunately caught by him, the other unfortunately fell to the ground and broke. After an investigation by the staff appraisal committee and oral descriptions by colleagues, it was determined that two people were negligent and issued disciplinary actions on the night of Nov. 3, according to one person with one major demerit and the other with two admonishments. 

Wu Mi-cha notes that the National Palace Museum will remember this lesson and will improve, including collection environment, operation guidelines and fellow workers training. In addition, they will publicize online the condition of all artifacts at the NPM this month.

故宮院長吳密察說：「我們真的很抱歉，很遺憾故宮發生這樣不幸的事件。但是我們也希望國人同胞可以理解，文物的傷損是免不了的。」

為故宮文物破損道歉，吳密察昨天上公視《有話好說》節目，也還原3件破損國寶中，唯一被認定是人為疏失的清乾隆青花花卉盤，失手打破的過程。

故宮院長吳密察說明：「藍布盒底部的布有一些脫落，所以他想要把它再黏回去，在這時候他就再把它給翻過來，但翻過來的時候就兩個文物就掉出來。還好一個文物是他用身體去把它擋住，讓它沒有掉到地上去，另外一件就掉到地上去了，掉到地上那一件就因為這樣破了。」

故宮瓷器科人員在5月19日整理文物時，錦盒中有6件文物，其中1人拿出4件，沒有告知裡頭還有文物，而且還沒扣上繫帶，導致另一名同仁誤以為盒中沒有文物，想要黏回脫落的錦盒底部，翻過來造成2件掉出來，其中一個幸運被接住，乾隆青花花卉盤則不幸摔破。經過考績會調查，還有同仁口述，確認兩人有疏失。3日晚間公布懲處結果，1人大過、1人申誡2次。

吳密察表示，故宮將記取此次教訓，包含典藏環境、作業規範、同仁訓練都會加強。另外，這個（11）月也會將故宮所有文物狀況公開上網。