A Tang Dynasty (618-907) pottery figure is exhibited in the Southwest China's Chongqing University museum. Photo: Screenshot of a photo in a WeChat article posted by a senior collector with username Jiang Shang

A university in Southwest China has launched an investigation into its newly opened museum after a senior collector said many of the items in the museum were fake, sparking widespread discussion on Chinese social media. 

A staff member at the publicity department of Chongqing University told the Global Times on Tuesday that the school has set up a special team to investigate the museum and will invite related experts to identify whether the cultural relics are fake or not.

The school will release the results in due course, the staff member said.

The response came after a senior collector with the username "Jiang Shang" on WeChat posted an article Monday titled "Chongqing University spent 6.7 million yuan [$947,612] to build a museum of fake collections?"

Photos taken by Jiang featured "cultural relics" such as a copper carriage apparently from the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), a square bronze cauldron from the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC) and Tang Dynasty (618-907) pottery figures, most of which are poorly made and have strange shapes, read the article.

Some of the items appeared to have been made using modern electroplating technology, the article said.

The article made a big splash on social media. An anonymous cultural relics expert told Shanghai-based thepaper.cn that the listed items are "ridiculously fake," and are mediocre replicas.

None of the exhibits in the museum were marked as being replicas or reproductions, Jiang told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The collections were donated by Wu Yingqi, a retired professor with the university and also a seasoned collector. Wu donated 342 items, including Chinese bronzes, pottery items, china and jade to the museum in February, according to the university's website. 

Wu Xiaoni, daughter of Wu Yingqi, was quoted by thepaper.cn on Tuesday afternoon as saying that the items had been identified by the school before being handed over to the museum. Wu Xiaoni also said the authenticity of the collections is subject to school investigation.

As an important carrier of cultural inheritance, the items in the university museum could not only enrich the university's cultural background but also further promote students' cultural awareness and confidence, said the university.

But Jiang said the exhibition showed the university and the museum experts were not being responsible toward history, the public and younger generations.

Yuan Yinlong, a Henan-based coin collector, told the Global Times that both the donor and the museum side should have conducted an identity test on the collections before creating the exhibition.

Yuan also urged collector associations and cultural relics bureaus across the country to jointly establish identification organizations for cultural relics and works of art.