The government needs to do more to protect China's cultural heritage, a leading Chinese art and antique collector said at the Chinese Collectors Convention Shanghai 2008 which opened on Wednesday.

In addition, private collectors should invest in antiques to nurture China's culture, rather than just investing in order to make money, Ma Weidu, owner of China's first private museum, urged yesterday.

Ma said the government could do more to protect China's cultural heritage, as individual collectors would not be able to retain Chinese culture and tradition alone.

He told the convention of veteran Chinese collectors, auction house directors, artists and art critics that the responsibility of protecting China's culture should be promoted to encourage more collectors.

"The purpose of investment in collection has been over-promoted to the public in recent years,'' he said. "But in my eyes, education or education of the next generation is my first priority."

Hong Sanxiong, a Taiwan antique collector, said collectors had a duty to showcase their treasures.

"Our responsibilities are to show what we have collected to the public instead of merely keeping them at home," Hong said.

Wang Yannan, director of China's Guardian Auction House, also called for greater social responsibility among Chinese collectors.

After the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province, the Guardian Auction House organized two charity auctions. About 160 artworks were sold, raising a total of 16.96 million yuan (US$2.49 million).

"It's true that many Chinese collectors nowadays are more keen on profit return for their collections, because they are really what we call 'the first generation' of collectors," Wang said.

She said the first generation of collectors could not spend a lot of time or money on historical pieces and did not have a great amount of knowledge about their collections.

"But I believe things will change," she said.