(FILE)

Wang Gang, a Chinese actor who hosts an antique program on TV, incurred a wave of criticism recently for allegedly smashing authentic treasures. In the show, appraisers determine whether antiques brought by collectors are genuine or fake. Those deemed fake are then theatrically smashed by Wang, though some pieces were later claimed by a few appraisers to be real.

In May, the Capital Museum in Beijing put on an exhibition of around 40 genuine porcelains and more than 30 forgeries smashed into pieces by Wang in the program so that collectors could make a comparison between the genuine ones and forgeries. However, some collectors who attended the exhibition found that the forgeries were authentic artworks.

Producers of the program denied that Wang destroyed any authentic pieces. The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Relics announced on August 21 that after careful examination, they found the porcelains broken by Wang were fakes.