At the signing ceremony of Huang Tingfang charity fund's donation to the Palace Museum on March 2, Shan Jixiang, President of the Palace Museum, revealed that in order to support the national poverty alleviation work and attract the attention of all sectors of society, the National Palace Museum Cultural Protection Foundation is going to auction the first restored lanterns, Wanshou lanterns and palace lanterns to help children in poor areas Children. He also revealed that after the auction, the Palace Museum will make sky lanterns and longevity lanterns again, which will be placed regularly every Spring Festival.
Shan Jixiang, President of the Palace Museum, said:
'we promise two things. First, none of the proceeds from the auction will be retained, and all the proceeds will be used for education and cultural undertakings in poor areas. Second, the Palace Museum will only auction this group of sky lanterns. '
These two 'sky lanterns' and' longevity lanterns' are important live exhibits in the National Palace Museum's exhibition of celebrating the lunar new year in the Forbidden City in the Spring Festival of 2019. They are restored and produced according to the research results of the archives collection of the National Palace Museum, and are displayed up and down in front of Qianqing Palace on the eve of the Spring Festival.
In the process of concrete implementation, the restoration of the sky lanterns and Wanshou lanterns has encountered great difficulties, because the sky lanterns and Wanshou lanterns have disappeared in the long river of history, and the related cultural relics have been scattered everywhere without trace, so the restoration work has reached a deadlock for several times. However, through the unremitting efforts of researchers, not only the usage, historical evolution, and even the detailed size of each part of the sky lamp and longevity lamp were found in the literature, but also the lamp body model, lamp couplet sample and lamp pole original were found in each warehouse. Finally, they were successfully restored and re established on the foundation of the Qianqing palace, so that the new year scene of the heyday of Kangxi and Qianlong appeared again today.