Priceless Chinese artefacts have been found smashed at the British Museum, risking a diplomatic row between London and Beijing.
A Qing Dynasty porcelain bowl and decorative ceramic box have been mysteriously destroyed after the bowl toppled from its mount inside a display cabinet, shattering both pieces.
The incident occurred on Sunday in Room 95 of the museum and CCTV footage has confirmed that nobody was present in the gallery when the bowl fell.
The artefacts belong to the Sir Percival David Collection, a trove of Chinese ceramics valued at approximately £1billion.
Both pieces date to the Kangxi era (1662–1722) and were originally produced in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province.
Photographs taken by Chinese visitors and shared on social media revealed fragments of the shattered porcelain scattered across the lower shelf of the case, sparking fury in China and raising the prospect of a diplomatic confrontation.
Museum staff have scrutinised CCTV recordings but remain unable to explain what caused the bowl to fall.
The mount holding the piece was found to be entirely intact, with no indication of any structural failure and was positioned well back on the shelf.
A Qing Dynasty porcelain bowl was found smashed
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BRITISH MUSEUM
The shelf itself was likewise undamaged and showed no signs of giving way.
Investigators have also ruled out vibrations from construction activity, confirming that no building works were taking place on site at the time of the incident.
A museum source said: “CCTV shows that no one was in the gallery at the time when the bowl fell from the shelf.”
The gallery was shut once the damage came to light but has since reopened, with a card in place of the bowl noting that the porcelain is undergoing “restoration”.
The breakages have triggered a wave of anger across Chinese media and social platforms
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BRITISH MUSEUM
The breakages have triggered a wave of anger across Chinese media and social platforms.
The South China Morning Post, under the headline “Cracks in security?”, reported that the incident had ignited online debate about how museums ought to safeguard delicate works.
The paper quoted Pan Jinyu, a Chinese-speaking tour guide based in London, who said: “I am more concerned with why the accident happened, how the artefacts will be restored and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future.”
The state-controlled Shanghai Daily described the collection as among “one of the most important collections of Chinese ceramics outside China”.
The damaged pieces form part of the largest donation ever made to the British Museum, gifted in March 2025 by the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art.
The collection comprises 1,700 objects spanning from the third to the 20th century.
Sir Percival David, a British businessman who lived from 1892 to 1964, assembled the collection through acquisitions across Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and China.
The museum’s own website notes that the holdings range from “unique creations” to “mass-produced” items manufactured in “batches of several hundred at a time”.
A British Museum spokesman said: “Regrettably a bowl and small box from the Qing Kangxi period in the Sir Percival David Collection have been damaged after the bowl fell from its shelf and landed on the bottom shelf.
“The shelf and mount show no sign of failure but we will continue to investigate how this happened.
“Both objects are already with our expert conservation team for complete restoration.
“We take the care of objects incredibly seriously and have stringent measures in place within cases to protect from such incidents occurring.”
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