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Peter Lely, James II and Anne Hyde detail, ca. 1660-9

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Girl With a Pearl Earring by Johannes (Jan) Vermeer, with details

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Cave Temples of Dunhuang

Carved by hand out of a cliff face in northwestern China, the Cave Temples of Dunhuang contain the world’s largest collection of Buddhist art. Inside are 500,000 square feet of colorful wall paintings and 2,000 painted clay sculptures. Cave 17, known as the Library Cave, once housed nearly 50,000 ancient manuscripts, including the world’s oldest dated printed book, the Diamond Sutra.

The Getty Conservation Institute has been working with the Dunhuang Academy for 26 years to study and help preserve the caves’ precious wall paintings. Treasures from this UNESCO World Heritage site are coming to the Getty in May 2016 for the exhibition Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road, which will also feature life-size, walk-in recreations of three caves hand-painted by artists from Dunhuang.

More facty goodness → 14 Fascinating Facts about the Cave Temples of Dunhuang

Interior and sculpture of a bodhisattva in Cave 275; Nine-story temple enclosing Cave 96; Interior of Cave 85; and South wall of Cave 320, depiction of the Aparimitāyus Sutra, all © The Dunhuang Academy. Detail from a wall painting of musicians in Cave 85. Photo: Lori Wong. © J. Paul Getty Trust, reproduced with permission of the Dunhuang Academy