Curtain rises on Buddha restoration

From now until January 2017, entry to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, includes a performance, a ballet of sorts, starring conservators and one very big 300-year-old Buddhist painting. Visitors can watch the restoration of The Death of the Historical Buddha (1713), a 16ft-tall scroll made by the Osaka-born painter, calligrapher and poet Hanabusa Itcho (1652-1724), in a temporary conservation studio installed in the institutions Asian art gallery. A specialist will be on hand to explain what the