The Forbidden City's East and West Palaces Replaced Flood Control Glass

In May this year, a piece of glass in the interior of the Palace Museum of the Forbidden City was smashed by tourists and caused cultural damage. On June 29, the director of the Palace Museum, Shan Yuxiang, stated that it is expected that the glass on which the cultural relics are displayed on the windows of the palaces of the Forbidden City will be replaced with anti-glazing glass.

"The sledgehammer cannot smash the smashing glass."

On May 4th, in the Qiankun Palace in the open area of ​​the inner west road of the Forbidden City, a male tourist smashed a piece of window glass in the original exhibition room of the main hall by hand, resulting in the fall and damage of a watch placed on the window. The damaged material was used as a national secondary cultural relic by the Qing Dynasty bronze-plated transfer water. At present, artifacts damaged by tourists are still being repaired and will soon meet with the audience.

Shan Yuxiang said that during the year, there would be glass displays of cultural relics on the windows of the palaces of the East and West Palaces, all of which were replaced with glass of flood prevention materials. The sledgehammers could not smash them. The replacement involved a total of more than 100 pieces. The current replacement plan has been formulated and procedures such as tendering will be conducted.

In addition to strengthening the window frame while protecting the glass, the original glass, window frame, etc. are all artifacts, so the replaced glass will be stored as data. According to reports, the replaced glass will be numbered for storage, for example, which piece of glass in the palace will be recorded in detail. "Maybe there is a possibility of changing it back later."

As for the glass replacement process, Shan Qixiang stated that since the window frames are also cultural relics, it is necessary to ensure that both the glass and the window frames are tamper-proof and the window frames must be reinforced while replacing the flood prevention glass.

In addition to the window glass replacement of the cultural relics display, other cultural relics windows will remain in their original state. “The main thing is to preserve the status quo of the cultural relics as much as possible. After all, the glass itself is a cultural relic, among which there are many old glass of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.”