Workers at the Beijing Forbidden City Development Company, a marketing arm of the Palace Museum that created to organize events, were fired on Tuesday after photos of a secret club at the Forbidden City were leaked last week, the Global Times reports.

The company's executives said the leak was an inside job. Reports that the Palace Museum had set up a private 500-member club, with a membership fee of 1 million yuan, has stirred up rage on the Chinese blogosphere for turning a cultural monument into an exclusive business venture.