A total of 70 masterpieces from Spain's Prado Museum, including the earliest known studio copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", have arrived in Shanghai for a four-month-long exhibition.
Staff with the Museum of Art Pudong have been busy making final preparations for the upcoming exhibition which is themed "Ages of Splendor: A History of Spain in the Museo del Prado".
The Prado's "Mona Lisa", the most important work of this exhibition, was listed in the Spanish Royal Collection in the 17th century and was collected by the Prado Museum in 1819.
In 2011, when researchers conducted restoration and study on the painting, they restored the piece hidden beneath the black paint, finding it to be very similar to Leonardo da Vinci's original but with brighter colors.
Some scholars believe that Prado's "Mona Lisa" was from Leonardo da Vinci's workshop, and was painted at the same time as the original "Mona Lisa" which on display at the Louvre.
"Indeed, it was a completely accidental discovery. No one expected that there would be a landscape painting completely straight out of Leonardo's workshop beneath the black paint. Therefore, it was a complete discovery, probably the greatest discovery that the Prado Museum has made in recent years," said Pedro Martinez Plaza, curator of the exhibition.
This is the second time for the Prado's "Mona Lisa" to leave the museum after it was briefly loaned to the Louvre in 2012.
Among all the 70 masterpieces to be shown at the exhibition, 16 of them have never been on view outside of Spain, and nine have never been loaned out from the Prado Museum before. More than half of the works will be shown for the first time in Asia.
Spanning from the 16th to 20th centuries, the exhibition will show collections of nearly 50 remarkable artists in the history of European art, including works by Titian, Verones, El Greco, Rubens, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Murillo, Ribera, Goya, Fortuny, and Sorolla.
"[The Prado Museum] provides many precious historical materials. We also have pictures showing the comparison with the 'Mona Lisa' in the Louvre, which are supported by the Louvre," said Li Minkun, chairwoman of the Museum of Art Pudong.
The exhibition was scheduled from April 23 to Sept 1.
Masterpieces from Spain's Prado Museum on public display in Shanghai
Protests in support of Palestinians in the Gaza conflict at the University of Texas Austin (UT Austin), United States, have been in their second week, while student encampments in other U.S. universities, including the University of Connecticut, Yale University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have been cleared out.
The arrests of 79 demonstrators on Monday stemmed from a protest at the University of Texas Austin campus, resulting in 78 individuals charged with criminal trespass and one with obstructing a roadway. Before any of these individuals are released from the Travis County jail, though, they have to go before a judge, which has been unclear how quickly that process is going to happen.
According to the organizers of Monday's demonstration, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group, a number of protesters were injured when they were arrested on Monday and were not given immediate medical attention or offered food and water for hours.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office said every person that is booked in the facility has been given a mental and health screening and then they are triaged according to the severity of their needs.
Some hours after the dramatic confrontations between police and demonstrators at the UT Austin campus, demonstrators reoccupied the south lawn of the campus, as they vowed to stay put until their demands are met.
On the following day of Tuesday, there were roughly about 75 to 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators that have camped out outside the Travis County jail. They have been chanting for the release of the individuals that have been arrested and for all the charges to be dropped.
And also, these demonstrators outside the Travis County jail witnessed the first person released from jail. When that individual came up, he threw his hands up into the air and sat down, and then a group of other demonstrators came and surrounded him, huddled in around him and protected him, talking to him about his experience over these past 24 hours.
The university last week placed the Palestine Solidarity Committee on interim suspension, as at least 57 people were arrested during last week's protest at the UT Austin campus. The committee said on Monday that it was not involved in organizing the event but is supportive of the protesters.
All charges against the 57 protesters arrested last week have been dropped, the Travis County attorney's office confirmed last Friday.
In another Texas city of Houston, a number of students at Rice University and the University of Houston also joined the nationwide efforts involving students in pro-Palestinian protests on Wednesday.
From Texas to California, pro-Palestinian demonstrations are spreading on campuses across the United States as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza continues. To date, hundreds have been arrested by police amid student protests.
Protest of Texas students over Gaza conflict enters second week
