Smashed porcelains confirmed as forgeries

The Chinese porcelains smashed on a TV show and now part of a display at the Capital Museum are counterfeits, as the exhibit's sponsors have claimed, the Beijing government said Tuesday.

The municipality's publicity department confirmed the findings of its own investigation on its official micro blog.

The exhibit, organized by the museum and by World Collection (Tianxia Shoucang), a Beijing TV program that evaluates ancient porcelains, became the subject of controversy after some experts said that most of the purportedly fake items were in fact genuine.

In response to the uproar, the Beijing administration of cultural heritage arranged for experts to examine the smashed items. Results showed that all of the porcelains are indeed phonies, the micro blog said.

The Beijing administration of cultural heritage called for supervision from netizens.

However, Yao Zheng - director of the jade-collection committee of the China Association of Collectors and one of the more-outspoken skeptics - said on Tuesday that he questions the results and called for more details.

The Capital Museum exhibit has more than 40 genuine ancient porcelains and more than 30 repaired fake ones, a museum spokesperson said on Monday.

World Collection, launched in 2007, shows ancient porcelains, and the collectors who bring them in must agree to let the host smash with a hammer the porcelains that the program's three judges say are fake. The fakes in the exhibit were later repaired.