40 Years of Development: New US museum helping to preserve ancient Chinese art

World
Europe

03:07

It's a museum with a Chinese art collection spanning more than five-thousand years. But it's not in China, it's in the United States. However, its very existance has been coming under threat because of a lack of preservation experts. CGTN's Frances Kuo has more.

It takes a special person to do this kind of work. Yi-hsia hsiao keeps history alive in vivid, pain-staking detail.

YI-HSIA HSIAO ASSOCIATE CONSERVATOR OF CHINESE PAINTINGS "I have to treat this painting like, it's the first time I see you. I have to respect it."

Hsiao specialized in conserving ancient Chinese paintings in her native Taiwan. Now, she has a new place to do it -- at the Cleveland museum of art in the U.S. state of Ohio.

YI-HSIA HSIAO ASSOCIATE CONSERVATOR OF CHINESE PAINTINGS "I just realize I have a lot of responsibility, but I'm happy because I'm doing the right thing."

Per Knutas is chief conservator.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "The foremost important trait is to have a sharp eye and a curious mind."

And persistence. For six years, he's pushed for a center in the museum specifically dedicated to Chinese painting conservation. He now has it, thanks to a one-and-a-half million dollar private donation.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "The greater field had identified that Chinese painting conservation in the U.S. was in crisis."

In crisis -- in part -- because Chinese masters of the ancient craft are retiring. And few people can fill the spots for such specific skills.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "How to apply something, how to hold a brush, how to cut the paper. We cannot intervene with our own subjective tastes and change the appearance, we have to also acknowledge the history of the paintings."

That training requires years under a master, not to mention a good foundation of Chinese culture.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "They have to have a contact with China, they have to spend time there in a lab or work under somebody who works in China."

The hope is to attract westerners to participate. As the new center will also serve as a training lab. Masters from China will visit the center every six months to train conservators.

FRANCES KUO CLEVELAND "The center at this museum is one of the few in the United States and the world dedicated to the conservation of Chinese paintings. The plan is to focus first on its own collection, then help other institutions with theirs.

That kind of partnership is crucial. There are only three other such conservation centers in the United States -- and one in the UK.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "Conservation is costly, not every museum has a conservation on staff or conservators on staff."

And the new center will help pass along narratives from the past that risked fading away.

PER KNUTAS CHIEF CONSERVATOR, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART "We do not conserve objects here, we conserve stories that are connecting us as humans."

FRANCES KUO, CGTN, CLEVELAND, OHIO.