Cao Zhen

caozhen0806@126.com

THRONGS of people swarmed into Shenzhen Museum on Thursday morning, bringing their collections of paintings, chinaware and other old items for a free artifact appraisal organized by the museum to mark International Museum Day.

Antique experts offered a comprehensive and professional artifact appraisal service for 250 collectors Thursday morning. “Some counterfeit makers coated the chinaware’s surface with yellow spots to make it look like antiques from centuries ago but in fact, real Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) chinaware can still be clean and polished even if it survives until today,” said Liu Tao, an expert at the event. “For paintings, modern paint pigments are different from real antique ones in shade. This is one of the appraisal methods you can use if you are only examining your collection with the naked eye,” said He Feng, another expert.

Shenzhen Museum is hosting a series of free events for visitors this week. On Thursday, the opening hours of the museum were extended to 9 p.m. and a comprehensive tour of its ongoing Taoist cultural relics exhibition was held in the evening. The Chinese documentary, “Masters in the Forbidden City,” which follows the lives of relic restorers in China’s imperial palace, was also shown Thursday night.

On Saturday, Shenzhen Museum will organize a tour of Nantou Ancient Town, an ancient walled city on the sea route through South China, and the tour is open to a maximum of 30 people above the age of 10. On Sunday afternoon, children are welcome to attend a free workshop on making a model of Minghua, a former French passenger ship built in 1962 and now a tourist attraction in Shekou. The event will only accept 20 attendees above the age of 6. Attendees of the aforementioned events should sign up through the museum’s WeChat (iszbwg).

This weekend, visitors can claim free International Museum Day souvenir cards and Shenzhen Museum passports at the museum’s service counter on a first-come-first-served basis.

Coordinated by the International Council of Museums, International Museum Day provides an opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and also serves as a platform to raise public awareness about the role museums play in the development of society. This year’s theme is “Museums and Contested Histories: Saying the Unspeakable in Museums.”

Two exhibitions are being held at the museum. One features paintings by Li Keran, which will last until Sunday. More than 20 paintings created by the Chinese master are on display at an exhibition organized by Xuzhou City, Li’s hometown in Jiangsu Province. Another 100 paintings by other Xuzhou artists, as well as calligraphic rub pieces and a holographic projection of ancient stone carvings, are also on display. The other exhibition showcases Taoist cultural relics on loan from Hubei Provincial Museum and Wudang Museum in Central China’s Hubei Province. The exhibition, which ends June 21, features the rich and ancient history of Taoist culture.