Thanks to a generous grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and support from Michael Feng, C79, and Winnie Chin Feng, NU79, Museum visitors will have an opportunity to view conservators at work in the China Gallery. Through July 2014, conservators are performing a close examination of each centimeter of the two large murals currently on display, and recording their findings on digital images. Believed to have been painted during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the murals arrived at the Museum in pieces between 1926 and 1928. Representing a Buddhist paradise, they were painted in the lower building of the Guangsheng Monastery located in Shanxi Province, China. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Royal Ontario Museum are the only other museums in North America to hold similar pieces.
A full survey of the current condition is an essential first step in documenting these magnificent murals and will enable the Museum to determine what treatment steps are needed for their stabilization, restoration, and ongoing preservation.