Newman Huo

    GUO XUELEI, deputy curator of the Shenzhen Museum and a member of the Guangdong Provincial Relics Appraisal Committee, was surprised when more than 200 Shenzhen people on Tuesday took their private collections — including ancient Chinese paintings, calligraphic works and ceramic ware — to the museum in the Civic Center for free appraisal on International Museum Day, which falls on yesterday.

    “Today, an increasing number of people in Shenzhen are showing an interest in buying ancient cultural relics because they have found that collecting ancient cultural relics is a good investment,” said Guo.

    As one of the city’s main activities celebrating International Museum Day, six experts from the Guangdong Provincial Relics Appraisal Committee, Shenzhen Museum and Shenzhen Institute of Archaeology and Relics Appraisal were invited to offer free appraisal services at the museum on Tuesday.

    Another 15 people who registered online with the Shenzhen Museum visited the museum’s cultural relics restoration room under the guidance of experts to learn more about the process of cultural relics restoration and protection.

    Four folk artisans of traditional Chinese intangible cultural heritage, including the making of pinwheels, sugar painting, paper-cut silhouettes, and dough figurines, were also invited to demonstrate their skills.

    To celebrate this year’s International Museum Day, the exhibition, “The Everlasting Northern Dynasties — The Art of Stone Sculpture,” opened at the old Shenzhen Museum on Shennan Road Central in Futian District on Tuesday.

    The exhibition, which will run until May 17 next year, features 22 stone sculptures from the Northern Dynasties (386-518), a Buddhist relic used to ward off evil spirits from the Southern Dynasties (420-589), and 16 relics from the Sixteen Kingdoms (304-439) through the Sui Dynasty (581-618).

    The exhibition was organized by the Shenzhen Museum and Shenzhen Goldstone Asset Management Co. Ltd.

    As another main activity celebrating International Museum Day, the two-week “Photographic Exhibition of the History of Shenzhen’s Opening-up,” which was organized by the Shenzhen Museum, was held at the Longhua compound of Foxconn Technology Group in Bao’an District, starting May 16.

    International Museum Day was designed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1977 to celebrate the role played by museums around the world and to help raise public awareness of the roles and functions of museums in society.

    Each year, the Advisory Committee of the ICOM selects a specific theme for International Museum Day. This year, the theme is “Museums and Memory.”