Centuries-old Chinese vase damaged at Chester Beatty

A CENTURIES-OLD Chinese vase from the Chester Beatty Library at Dublin Castle was recently damaged in an accident, it has emerged.

The artefact, from the late 18th or early 19th century, was broken over a week ago when it fell accidentally from a table, a museum spokeswoman said yesterday.

The museum is investigating how the piece was broken, but does not fully know how it happened as there was nobody around at the time, she said.

The artefact was on a display in the lobby area outside the library’s exhibition space that recently housed Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester, which attracted about 85,000 visitors, the spokeswoman said.

The vase broke on a previous repair line and the damage is being assessed. It will be repaired and the museum has taken external advice, the spokeswoman said.

However, the vase is not as important or rare as other pieces in the museum’s collection.

This is shown by the fact that it was displayed in a more open environment, she said.

She added that the museum does not put a value on any of its pieces.

The library contains a priceless collection of manuscripts and books dating back to 2,700 BC.

Many of the artefacts were bequeathed by private collector Alfred Chester Beatty and contain treasures from Islamic, east Asian and western cultures.

In 1991 a 13th century Islamic manuscript worth some £200,000 was stolen from the library, but was later recovered.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times