Beijing – It is a highly technical job in what looks more like a laboratory than a museum: a fragment of a glaze roof tile of The forbidden city of Beijing It is analyzed in a state -of -the -art x -ray diffraction machine that produces images, which are then projected on computer screens.
The fragment that is being examined has a dark area on its surface that restorers want to understand. Its objective is to better preserve artifacts in the extensive imperial palace, the old house of the emperors of China and its power headquarters for hundreds of years.
“We want to learn what the black material is,” said Kang Baoqiang, one of the restorers of the complex, today a museum that attracts tourists around the world. “Either atmospheric sediment or the result of a substantial change from within.”
Some 150 workers in the team fuse scientific analysis and traditional techniques to clean, repair and revive the more than 1.8 million relics in the museum collection.
They include displacement paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, and, something unexpectedly, adorned old watches that were given to the emperors by the first European visitors.
At the end of the hall from the X -ray room, two other restorers land the holes in a green silk panel with the Chinese character for “longevity” sewn, carefully adding the color in a process called “invention.”
It is believed that the piece was a birthday gift for Empress Dowager Cixi, the power behind the throne at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
Much of the work is laborious and monotonous, and it takes months to complete.
“I don’t have the great dreams of protecting the traditional cultural heritage of which people speak,” said Wang Nan, one of the restorers. “I simply enjoy the feeling of achievement when an old piece is fixed.”
Now a Major Tourist site in the heart of BeijingThe forbidden city is the name that was given to the exhibition in exhibition by foreigners in the imperial era because the entrance was prohibited for most strangers. It is formally known as the Palace Museum.
Many of his treasures were hurriedly taken during World War II to prevent them from falling into the hands of the invasive Japanese army. During A civil war that led the Communist Party to power in 1949The defeated nationalists took many of the most precious pieces to Taiwanwhere they are now in the National Palace Museum.
Since then, the Beijing Palace Museum has rebuilt its collection.
Restoration techniques have also evolved, said Qu Feng, head of the Museum Conservation Department, although old forms remain the basis of work.
When we preserve an ancient piece, “we protect the cultural values that it carries,” he said. “And that is our ultimate goal.”
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Associated Press’s video producer, Olivia Zhang, contributed to this report.
