Conserving Art

The conservation and restoration of the Chinese vases broken in 2006

An incident in the Museum on Wednesday 25 January 2006 involving a member of the public resulted in damage to three huge oriental porcelain vases which had been on display for many decades.

The impact that toppled the vases resulted in pieces of porcelain being distributed over a wide area.

Public and press shared the opinion that the reconstruction of the vases was impossible.

Was it impossible? Explore this site to follow the vases' progress from scattered fragments to their redisplay in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The site includes slideshows, film clips of the conservation process and a timelapse of one of the vases under reconstruction (in the Reassembly section of the interactive).

Further details can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions pages.





Click an image to see how the vases were reassembled.

You will need the Flash 8 (or higher) plugin for this interactive section. Most recent web browsers come with this plugin. However, if you need it, Click here to download it free.