Published: August 3, 2010
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/old-masters/renaissance/article/35372-secret-treasures-of-imperial-china-to-emerge-in-salem-mass
Within Beijing's Forbidden City, a garden complex housing artworks, jewelry, and exquisite furniture and crafts collected by Qing Dynasty's Emperor Qianlong has not been open to the public for the past 250 years. Now part of the immense Palace Museum, the 27-building compound served as the emperor’s retreat and was accessible only to him and a few royal confidants and concubines.
This summer, Peabody Essex Museum curator Nancy Berliner is bringing the imperial park's treasures to her museum with "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City," an exhibition of 90 objects from the Qianlong garden that will run at the Salem, Massachusetts, institution from September 14 to January 9, 2011. The show means that Asian art enthusiasts in the United States will have a chance to experience the splendor of China's artistic golden age even before Chinese audiences.
Currently under a $25 million restoration project that was begun in 2001, the emperor’s private garden won’t be open to visitors until after 2019, when the project is set to be completed. The exhibition in Salem will present the finest murals, paintings, wall coverings, furniture, architectural elements, jades, and cloisonné — all of which unveil the never-before-seen private life of the Qianlong Emperor, who was one of the 18th century’s richest and most influential men.
A consultant on the Palace Museum complex's restoration, Berliner is planning to re-create part of the 18th-century imperial complex for the show, which has also posed a $1.5 million financial challenge to the museum even after a combined $300,000 funding from sponsors including the Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, American Express, and the Mandarin Oriental.
Yet according to the museum, 85,000 visitors are expected to see the exhibition, which would make for the second-most-attended show at the museum since it reopened in 2003. The exhibition will later travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum.