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North China Museum Sues for Damaged Relic
The Shenyang Municipal Intermediate Court in this capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province held a hearing today for a case involving 27 million yuan (3.2 million US dollars) in compensation for a heavily damaged cultural relic.
The Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum sued the Fumanlou Catering Co. for ruining a stone tablet in front of the Imperial Palace of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in Shenyang, and asked for the high amount.
The relic was broken into five pieces when an employee of the catering company drove his speeding car into it in June last year.
Archeological experts said the relic cannot be repaired.
The stele, placed as a notice to officers to dismount from their horses in front of the residence of the imperial family, has been considered of high archeological value. Words inscribed on the stele are written in five languages including Mandarin, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui nationality language and Tibetan. There are only two such stone tablets in China.
The imperial palace in Shenyang is the best preserved example of palace architecture in China after Beijing's Forbidden City. In order to protect the relic, the municipal government had renovated the street in front of the palace into a pedestrian thoroughfare in 1998.
The driver, surnamed Lu, illegally drove his white Mercedes Benz into the street, and was critically injured when the car crashed into the stone tablet. He died in hospital two days after the accident.
The museum claimed in court that Lu and his employer should be held responsible for the accident.
More than 300 people were in the courtroom today for the hearing. An official with the municipal culture department said that no matter what the verdict is, the case has increased people' s awareness of the need for relics protection.
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