A Brief Introduction to the Department of Cultural Relics Protection of Xuzhou Museum

       Xuzhou Museum carried out the restoration of collected cultural relics and painting mounting from the late 1970s. In the late 1980s, we had the professional ceramic restorers, and they successively repaired the painted pottery figurines unearthed from the tomb of King of Chu of Beidongshan; the pottery “Flying Horseman” Figurine unearthed from the Terracotta Army Pit of shizishan; the Dancing Pottery Figurine unearthed from Han tomb of Tuolanshan; the Jade Pillow with Gilded Bronze Curled-up Dragon Frame and Jade Face Covering unearthed from Western Han Tomb of Houloushan; the Jade Suit sewn with silver thread unearthed from Liuhe’s tomb in Huoshan; the Jade Pillow embedded by gold foil. Xuzhou Museum established the Department of Cultural Relics Restoration and Protection with the professional equipment to repair and protect the collections of our museum. From 2000, we introduced some talents of Cultural Relics Protection Major in succession, in order to carry out the systematic work of protection and restoration. They successfully finished the restoration of bronze and iron articles from the Yangguishan Accompanying pit, the stone inscription of Huaian Museum and the painted pottery wares of Peixian Museum.

       The top fields of restoration department of Xuzhou Museum include assorted jade articles: Jade Suit Sewn with Gold Thread unearthed from the tomb of King of Chu in Shizishan, the Jade Suit Sewn with Silver Thread unearthed from Liuhe’s tomb in Huoshan, Jade Coffin and “Shiguanjian” Jade Pillow unearthed from the tomb of King of Chu in Shizishan and the serial jade pillows and jade face coverings; assorted iron stuffs: armors and helmets of Han Dynasty and Jin Dynasty; assorted painted pottery figurines: group painted pottery figurines unearthed from Beidongshan of Han Dynasty and Linjiaba of Nanchao.

       The Restoration Department has finished two scientific researches: “The Research on the Protection of Painted Jade Piece” of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and “The Research on the Protection of Unearthed Water-logged Painted Pottery Wares” of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture.

       In 2008, the Restoration Department obtained the first batch of second-level qualification of the protection and design of portable cultural relics and the second-level qualification of the restoration of portable cultural relics.