Paid for in bowls

Museum curators in Zhejiang use the oddest currency. They go about the countryside armed with sets of new crockery to exchange for ancient bowls and dishes. Zhang Kun has the story.

In an age when there were no antique markets in China, museum staff used to cycle out to the countryside of Zhejiang province loaded with new bowls and dishes. They would exchange these for antiques from the villagers.

It was in the early 1960s when a peasant woman found an odd-shaped ceramic item in the ruins of an old kiln in Shangyan'er, Longquan of Zhejiang province. Without second thoughts, she gave it to the local museum.