A New York-based preservation group recently finished a decade-long collaboration with Beijing to restore a corner of one of its most famous relics. From The Los Angeles Times:
“The Forbidden City is huge and . . . there was too much work to do; therefore, our country didn’t have the energy, time as well as enough money to manage this part of the palace,” said Wang Shiwei, senior engineer of the Palace Museum’s historical architecture department. “It is the first time the Palace Museum is cooperating with a foreign organization to repair its facilities comprehensively.”
Palace officials visited the Peabody Museum and other venues to witness firsthand U.S. techniques of cultural restoration.
The pressure was palpable: They were undertaking the renovation of a sacred icon unchanged from the times of Imperial China.
