Not handled with care

The Palace Museum admitted on Sunday that a rare 1,000-year-old porcelain plate was damaged on July 4, when a laboratory researcher accidentally programmed the jaws of a testing machine to close too tight.

While the damage to the precious Song Dynasty (960-1279) ceramic from the Ge kiln is to be regretted, the museum's handling of the situation leaves much to be desired.

The public might still be in the dark about the incident, had a netizen not blown the whistle on Saturday. The museum only publicly confirmed the damage after the Internet expos, and even then did not immediately reveal how badly the plate was damaged.