Li Xiaojie has been appointed the new head of China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), said a statement posted on the administration's official website on Friday.

Li, 56, former vice minister of culture, was announced the new director at a cadre meeting held by the administration Tuesday, according to the statement.

Shan Jixiang, former director of the SACH, has become the new director of Beijing's Palace Museum, succeeding Zheng Xinmiao who held the post from 2002 and will reach the official retirement age of 65 in October, said a statement posted on the museum's official website Thursday.

Minister of Culture Cai Wu said Shan's appointment is part of a regular reshuffling, and recognized achievements made by the Palace Museum since 2002 when Zheng took office as well as the museum's prompt damage-control actions following a series of scandals in 2011.

Museum administrators came under fire in May 2011, when several on-loan exhibition pieces were stolen. This was followed by an August report that said a researcher had accidentally damaged a 1,000-year-old porcelain dish belonging to the museum.

In the same month, an online whistleblower revealed that four major accidents involving the museum's artifacts had been covered up by museum administrators.