Copies of Palace Museum royal lanterns sold for 20 mln yuan

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The square of the Heavenly Purity and the Hall of Imperial Supremacy were lit after 179 years on Tuesday for a charity auction of royal lanterns of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

A pair of historically accurate Heavenly Lanterns (tian deng) sold for 10.6 million yuan (1.58 million U.S. dollars) along with a pair of Longevity Lanterns (wanshou deng) and five pairs of smaller royal lanterns. The total selling price was as high as 20.05 million yuan (about 2.99 million U.S.dollars).

The money raised from the auction will be used to sponsor education and culture programs in the country's impoverished regions.

Longevity and Heavenly lanterns

The installation of Longevity and Heavenly lanterns was once an important part of the Spring Festival celebrations in the imperial court as well as among civilians in the early-and-mid-Qing Dynasty. It was however not until this year that the royal lanterns were relit since the long-established tradition was called off by Emperor Daoguang in 1840.

The time-honored Palace Museum has been gaining popularity among the country's youth with its miscellaneous cultural and creative products including cosmetics, homecare and stationeries. In 2017, the sales of such products hit 1.5 billion yuan (0.2 billion U.S. dollars).

People attending the auction at the Palace Museum in Beijing, April 2, 2019. /VCG Photo‍

Charity to the society

Shan Jixiang, the museum's curator, said the Palace Museum had received a lot of help and support from the society and would like to return the favor and contribute to charity work.

"Poverty alleviation is one of the most important missions for China. I think our museums should also do our part in eradicating poverty," he said. "The lanterns go up for auction tonight are among the 10,000 cultural products created by the Palace Museum, and all the money raised will be used to support educational and cultural enterprises in the country's poverty-stricken areas."

While many netizens on China's Twitter-like Weibo came in support of the auction that aimed at promoting welfare in poverty-stricken areas, some others warned to keep a track of the charity's donations.

A new try in the New Year

During an exhibition called "Celebrating the Spring Festival in the Forbidden City", when the two lanterns were first displayed in public, the Forbidden City was transformed into a Spring Festival cultural experience, replicating ancient traditions and celebrations in various forms.

Besides the exhibition, for the first time in 94 years, the museum staged a light show for the Lantern Festival earlier this year, drawing thousands of visitors. The museum has also been working to use its cultural innovation to support poor areas, with the auction just as one example.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

(Yang Meng, Cai Mengxiao, Yu Fengsheng, Jiang Qingrui contributed to this story.)