Author Archives: Stephen Lang

Rhinoceros Libation Cups

By Stephen Lang | Published: July 29, 2011
The Chinese antiques market continues to grow as evidenced by the recent Antiques Roadshow episode that featured a set of rhinoceros libation cups valued at over a million dollars.   This morning as I flipped through the channels I came across the Today show and saw a plug for a segment with the owner of [...]
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Xuanzang and the Silk Road Pt. 4

By Stephen Lang | Published: February 25, 2011
Back in June of 2010 I wrote about travelling to the Nara National Museum for an exhibition about China’s influence on Japan during the Tang Dynasty. see:  http://penn.museum/blog/museum/crating-and-packing/ During my trip I visited a temple called Yakushi-ji Temple.    Near the entrance there was one object that  caught my eye, a replica of the pedestal [...]
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Xuanzang and the Silk Road Pt. 3

By Stephen Lang | Published: December 17, 2010
The iconography of Xuanzang, and its history,  is quite fascinating.   Bearing the typical shaved head of a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang is depicted in our painting with a large backpack of sutras, a canopy over his head (with a hanging incense burner) and holding a scroll in his left hand and a fly wisk in [...]
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Xuanzang and the Silk Road Pt. 2

By Stephen Lang | Published: November 22, 2010
In my last post I introduced a Japanese painting currently hanging in the Director’s office, here is the basic information about the piece: Title: Buddha with Sixteen Benign Deities (Shaka juuroku zenshin)  釈迦十六善神 Period: Late 17th – Early 18th century Material: Ink and Color on Silk Provenience: Japan Artist: Signed Shuho What is going on [...]
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Xuanzang and the Silk Road

By Stephen Lang | Published: November 13, 2010
The Director’s office sees all kinds of visitors.  From curators and researchers to  board members and potential donors, there is a diversity of interests and topics that get addressed over light cocktails and finger foods.  For this reason we have been trying to create a focal point in the room that relates to a particularly salient exhibit or [...]
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The great FREEZE out

By Stephen Lang | Published: October 28, 2010
On Friday the 29th of October starting at 6:00 PM,  the Penn Museum will officially be frozen out of our collections database ARGUS.  For two months we will be unable to update locations for objects or input new information about the collection.  This is because we are finally transitioning to our new database KE Emu! That [...]
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The NEW Chinese Painting Rack

By Stephen Lang | Published: August 24, 2010
Working in a museum can sometimes seem like an exercise in eternal patience.  You seem to always be planting the seed of something that will only come to fruition weeks, months, or even years from now.  One such project has been my dream of having the Chinese paintings in our collection (some of which have [...]
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Crating and Packing

By Stephen Lang | Published: June 30, 2010
After spending some time in Osaka seeing the sites, ( bunraku, fugu, kobe beef, Ceramics Museum, shopping) I headed to the city of Nara ready to get down to work.  I arrived at the museum with the intention of condition reporting  our statue and its base and then overseeing the crating of each.  If time [...]
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Minpaku!

By Stephen Lang | Published: June 18, 2010
I visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka (MINPAKU).  It was incredible. see: http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/english/museum/exhibition/ They had a design award in their lobby prominently displayed and I found out why.   The museum galleries are just packed with objects of every kind and sort. The majority of the material seemed to be from the 18th century [...]
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Planes, trains, and buses.

By Stephen Lang | Published: June 17, 2010
Well I made it to Japan in one piece.  The journey was not very pleasant, even though I did get to fly business class.  This sometimes happens when the borrowing institution wants you to be able to get some sleep on the plane, particularly when there isn’t much time to get over jet lag.  I [...]
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