With two months' hard work, people from Luoyang Cutural Relic Bureau in Central China’s Henan province successfully stripped off large mural paintings in two tombs of the Tang Dynasty.

The mural paintings have been sent to Luyang Ancient Tomb Meseum and will be showed to public in the same way as they were in the tomb.

In March 2005, researchers for relics excavated two tombs with exquisite paintings in the city’s new district. The hosts of tombs were later identified as two wives of Li Dan (662 A.D.-716 A.D.) before he was enthroned as the Tang emperor.

Experts said it was the first time for Henan to excavate mural paintings of such a large scale. The paintings, covering an area of nearly one hundred square meters, showed the highest value in the mural paintings of Tang dynasty.

In one tomb, 38 figures were drawn on the painting, with a blue dragon at the left side and a white tiger at the right side, both being symbols of the royal palace. Another tomb was painted with 14 figures.

Experts said the paintings depicted royal families going outside. Figures in the paintings wore various facial expressions and were in different clothes. The paintings were drawn with simple lines in colors of red, black and yellow, which were still bright after thousand years.

Taking the paintings off from the wall was a difficult task. In order to finish the job, museum workers used a special glue on the paintings and took them down in small bits with a piece of cotton cloth.

(Chinanews.cn August 11, 2005)