Deciphering origins of the Da Vinci code

Da Vinci Group released a public statement on its website Sunday night saying, "All the Italian brand furniture that Da Vinci sells in China was produced and imported from Italy."

Da Vinci's four-story shop in Beijing exhibits furniture from more than 100 brands, nearly 60 percent of them Italian. The 20-square-meter showroom for Cappelletti is on the third floor. One 2-meter-wide bed is priced at 408,659 yuan after a 20 percent discount. The label states that the bed, a model called Emotion, was made in Italy of briarwood.

Zhao Ying, the store's sales manager, said on the CCTV report that all of the bed's sophisticated carvings are handwork. On Tuesday, a saleswoman told China Daily that's not entirely true - parts of some designs are too intricate for hand-carving. She said she didn't want to be identified for fear of losing her job.

'Truly made in Italy'

At a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday, Da Vinci general manager Panzhuang Xiuhua insisted that all the Italian furniture displayed in her eight outlets "was truly made in Italy".

Panzhuang, who burst into tears several times, said she was willing to buy 20 tickets for journalists and customers to travel to Italy for a field study of her Italian suppliers.

She did say the "American furniture" pieces in her stores, including the Hollywood Homes brand, mostly were outsourced products made in countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Indonesia and China. She said the sales staff had told buyers about the places of origin.

Panzhuang also said that Changfeng makes furniture for Hollywood Homes.

Tino Cappelleti, who was introduced as CEO of Cappelleti, said his company's furniture is "100 percent made in Italy" and all its material meets the European Union's quality standards.

The news conference was interrupted twice by an unidentified customer who yelled that he worried about the quality of Da Vinci's furniture. He said he had bought some costing more than 10 million yuan. The company did not respond to his comments, and he left.

"I am considering returning all furniture and asking for compensation from Da Vinci," a customer named Ding told China Daily after the conference. He said he had spent nearly 3 million yuan at the store.