Auction of State Heirlooms Halted

The auction of four pieces of cultural relics that claimed to be "state heirlooms" was halted by the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage. The reason, according to the administration, is that the auction company has conducted misleading and false advertisements for its goods.

The auction company, Royal International Auction Co., Ltd, a major cultural relic auction agent, has been found to have advertised their goods as state-level treasures without examination from the expert panel of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Relics, the local Beijing Times reported.

The four pieces of cultural relics are advertised as a bronze pot from the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.- 476 B.C.), a belt hook from the Warring States Period (403 B.C.- 221 B.C.), and two pieces of lacquer ware used by the first emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty (6 B.C.-57 A.D.). They belong to two Taiwan collectors and were originally scheduled to be auctioned on the 17th and 18th of November. Their total value is estimated at 70 million yuan, or 9.3 million U.S. dollars.

Although these antiques were claimed to be state treasures by the auction company, the expert panel from the Cultural Relics Bureau said three of them were forgeries and the last one was still under experts' examination. The auction company has been treating these works as cultural relics in their advertisements and therefore might mislead collectors, said an official with the cultural relic bureau.