A Chinese museum has been forced to close after claims its 40,000-strong collection of supposedly ancient relics is almost entirely composed of fakes.

The Jibaozhai Museum in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, opened in 2010, its 12 exhibition halls packed with apparently unique cultural gems.

Embarassing: 40,000 of the museum's supposedly ancient relics are said to be mostly made up of knock-offs. Credit:Getty Images

But on Monday, the museum was shut after claims many of the exhibits were knock-offs bought for between 100 and 2000 yuan ($17.50 and $350).

The museum's public humiliation began earlier this month when visiting Chinese writer Ma Boyong noticed a series of inexplicable discrepancies and posted his findings online.