Originally published Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 10:03 AM

First Oregon art lab project is ancient money tree

The first project for a new art lab in Portland, Ore., is a 2,000-year-old money tree from a Chinese tomb.

PORTLAND, Ore. —

The first project for a new art lab in Portland, Ore., is a 2,000-year-old money tree from a Chinese tomb.

The heavily encrusted 4-foot bronze sculpture has undergone three months of scrutiny at the Laboratory for the Science of Art Conservation. It's a joint project of the Portland Art Museum and Portland State University, the first lab of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

The founder, 32-year-old Seattle native and chemist Tami Lasseter Clare, got into her specialty by studying clear coatings for bronze at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Clare moved west when her husband Brian, also a chemist, got a job in the Rose City last year.

The money tree is from the museum's Schnitzer collection. One preliminary finding is that it appears to be virtually intact.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com

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