China Cultural Relics Information Consulting Center recently completed the "National Cultural Relics Appraisal Survey" involving 3/kloc-0 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government). The survey report shows that at present, there are at least a dozen collection programs active on domestic screens. Some of these programs, in pursuit of a temporary sensation, encouraged the experts who participated in the programs to offer false sky-high prices for the collections, which misled the public to a great extent. Individual "Jianbao" TV programs aimed at weaving wealth stories and speculating the market value of cultural relics have contributed to the identification of folk cultural relics.
In recent years, with the growth of folk collections, private folk cultural relics appraisal institutions have developed rapidly and played an active role in meeting the needs of the masses. However, due to the low entry threshold and lack of legal supervision, driven by interests, many private appraisal institutions have blossomed everywhere. Among the more than 80 cultural relics appraisal institutions surveyed by China Cultural Relics Information Center, some have been registered by the administrative department for industry and commerce, some claim to have been approved by the administrative department for cultural relics, and many appraisal institutions have been "generous" in conducting appraisal business without corresponding conditions or legal approval. The personnel composition of some institutions engaged in the identification of folk cultural relics is very irregular. Some of them are "self-taught" collectors, some are non-professionals who have only studied in a social appraisal training class for a few days and obtained a "certificate of completion", and some are members of national and local cultural relics appraisal committees, engaged in commercial folk cultural relics appraisal business in various ways. The ability and level of these appraisers are very different, and their professional ethics are also uneven, which leads to great differences in the charging standards, grading standards and appraisal processes of folk cultural relics appraisal, and it is difficult to guarantee the appraisal quality. Civil disputes caused by identification occur from time to time. Xie Chensheng, honorary president of China Cultural Relics Society, believes that the lack of unified certification, management and restraint has led to a large number of institutions and individuals who do not have the basic conditions and cannot bear civil liability independently entering the cultural relics appraisal market, which is the main reason for the disorder of the current market for cultural relics appraisal in folk collections.