China's top museum January 21 issued the first 15 volumes of a 60-book collection on its most treasured cultural relics.

The set features photographs and descriptions of more than 12,000 cultural relics including bronzeware, jadeware, paintings, silk items, and furniture.

The Palace Museum, together with the Commercial Press Hong KongCo. and the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House, said the remaining volumes would be issued by 2004.

Since the 1980s, the Palace Museum has released several publications on cultural relics.