Official vows better conditions for cultural relics

A bronze mask is shown during an exhibition for Jiangxi cultural relics at the Capital Museum in Beijing on Monday. China has made great efforts and will invest more in cultural relic preservation.[Photo by Chai Cheng/for China Daily]

China will step up its preservation of cultural relics despite challenges ahead such as the shortage of talents and technology, an official with the country's top cultural agency said on Monday.

A 2005 investigation by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage found that more than 50 percent of museum-stored cultural relics show corrosion.

Around 2.3 million pieces are considered to be severely corroded, Li Xiaojie, deputy minister of culture and director of the administration, said at a news conference on Monday.

Between 2006 and 2010, the central government invested 250 million yuan ($41.2 million) into improving museum storage conditions. Li said environmental factors, such as proper temperature, humidity and lighting, are essential in protecting cultural relics.

"The purpose is to prevent new damages. We don't have to repair all corroded cultural relics," Li said. "Cultural relics can't avoid corrosion. Our goal is to help them live with a disease."

But repairs will still be made to the 2.3 million severely corroded relics. Between 2006 and 2010, the central government invested 600 million yuan into such repair projects.

Li said the current Five-Year Plan (2011-15) will see an even larger investment, with 817 million yuan already invested between 2011 and 2013 into repairing severely corroded relics.

But Li said repair efforts have met with bottleneck restrictions, such as the shortage of experienced artisans, lack of proper technologies and a heavy workload made even more challenging by a long work cycle.