A German museum closed on Wednesday its exhibition of several Chinese Terra-cotta warriors after finding out that the renowned 2,200 year-old clay figures were duplicates.

Wulf Koepke, director of the Museum of Ethnology in the northern port city of Hamburg, told Xinhua that the exhibit has been closed and the museum will sue Center of Chinese Arts and Culture (CCAC), the exhibition company that organized the show.

The museum itself is a "victim," said Koepke.

Yokna Grimm, a spokesman for the CCAC said the company has never said the warriors themselves were "original" in its contract with the museum.

According to Grimm, the contract said the warriors are " authentic clay figures made of original material."

"To us, authentic means they are ceramic, life-sized and comparable with the originals," added Grimm.

However, the museum said the CCAC had violated its legal obligations and its lawyers were considering possible legal action against the company based in Leipzig.

The Power in Death exhibit, which opened in late November and was scheduled to run until September 2008, has drawn more than 10, 000 visitors, who have been offered refund by the museum.

Authorities in Xi'an, home to the ancient Chinese clay army soldiers, said they were unaware of the exhibit in Hamburg and the figures can not possibly be original.

China has so far only authorized the ongoing exhibition at the British Museum in London, China's biggest ever overseas loan of the clay warriors.

(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2007)