The Bowers Museum has partnerships with the
Nanjing Museum, the
Shanghai Museum, the
British Museum, the
Tokyo National Museum, the
Vatican Ethnological Museum, the
Museo del Oro of
Bogotá, and the
Museo de la Basílica de Guadalupe, to organize and host exhibitions since 1992. The Bowers has organized several special exhibitions on Chinese history and culture since 2000. The museum board's chair, Anne Shih, who emigrated to the United States from her native
Taiwan in 1979, has developed key contacts with Chinese cultural authorities that have given rise to several exhibitions, beginning with "Secret World of the
Forbidden City: Splendor From China's Imperial Palace" (2000), an unprecedented exhibit of 350 treasures from China's Imperial Palace that included statues, pottery, paintings and other pieces, as well as recreations of rooms in the Imperial Palace. "Treasures from Shanghai: 5000 Years of Chinese Art and Culture" (2007) featured objects on loan for the first time from the Shanghai Museum portraying the evolution of Chinese technology, art, and culture. Curated by Chen Kelun, authority on Chinese history and culture and deputy director of the Shanghai Museum, the focus of the exhibit was the ancient Chinese bronzes from late
Xia to early
Han dynasty, and Chinese porcelains from the
Song dynasty to the prime time of the Qing dynasty. This was the third collection brought to the United States from the Shanghai Museum and the first in more than 20 years. "
Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" (2008) was the largest loan of terra cotta figures and significant artifacts to travel to the U.S. from the First Emperor's enormous mausoleum. Considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, the tomb complex featuring thousands of terra cotta warriors provided a deeper knowledge of the historical site and showcased 120 sets of objects, with 14 life-size figures. The exhibition was organized by the Bowers Museum and traveled to the
High Museum of Art, the
Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the
National Geographic Museum, and was guest-curated by Dr. Albert E. Dien, professor emeritus,
Stanford University. The Bowers partnered with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in 2011 to organize "Warriors, Tombs and Temples: China's Enduring Legacy," a sequel of newly discovered treasures from the ancient tombs. "China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui" (2015) focused on the art and artifacts of
Sanxingdui, a small village that is one of China's ancient mysteries. This international exhibition featured 120 bronze, jade, and gold objects from the village of Sanxingdui, and its highly sophisticated culture unlike any other in China. The exhibition examined the mystery of where the 3500-year-old culture came from and where and why it abruptly vanished. Organized by the
Sichuan Cultural Bureau and, the Bowers Museum, the exhibition traveled to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The Bowers also partnered with the British Museum after signing a five-year agreement, yielding several exhibitions. "Egyptian Treasures from the British Museum" (2001) presented more than 100 items illustrating the achievements of
ancient Egyptian
art and culture, many of which had been loaned for the first time. John Taylor, Assistant Keeper of The British Museum, was curator of the exhibition. "Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt: Treasures From the British Museum" (2005) featured a comprehensive collection of ancient Egyptian funerary material. The exhibition featured 140 objects, including 14
mummies and/or coffins, and was at the time the largest exhibition of its kind to be shown by the British Museum outside of Britain. "Queen of Sheba: Legend and Reality" (2004) explored the legend of the
Queen of Sheba as portrayed in cultures around the world. This exhibition of antiquities, coins, prints, drawings, and modern ephemera delved into the reality of the Queen of Sheba by including archaeological evidence from the ancient kingdom of Saba in modern-day Yemen. The exhibition was organized by The British Museum. For the exhibition "
The Holy Land:
David Roberts,
Dead Sea Scrolls,
House of David Inscription" (2002) the museum implemented metal detectors, armed guards, and increased police presence to protect two of Israel's most important links to its ancient history: the House of David Inscription and two fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was the first time the House of David Inscription—a stone fragment containing the first mention of
King David outside the
Hebrew Scriptures—was viewed outside Israel. Because of the historic significance of the scrolls and inscription, this was the only venue for the exhibition, which returned to Israel immediately after it closed. "Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World" (2004) offered a rare glimpse into the sacred culture of
Tibet, bringing nearly 200 sacred objects to the Western world for the first time. Midway through its run, about 70 protesters gathered outside the Bowers to complain that the show failed to address the fraught history of Chinese domination of Tibet since the 1950s, including its crushing of a 1959 uprising and ban of the
Dalai Lama,
Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader. The Bowers at the time said that the exhibition's aim was to explore Tibet's art history, not contemporary politics. "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" (2009) included more than 100 works of art dating from the 1950s to the present and compiled from the artist's personal collection—many of which had never been seen in public. The
Colombian artist,
Fernando Botero's unique style is recognized and renowned worldwide for its voluminous forms and sensuous figures. Equally comical, as they are critical, these works take on themes of religion, politics, history, and contemporary life in Latin America through portraiture, still life, and sculpture. Organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia. "Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasure of Ethiopia" (2013) focused on current scientific theory on human evolution and how the discovery of
Lucy (Australopithecus) continues to influence our understanding of human origins. Discovered in the late 20th century in
Ethiopia, Lucy is the oldest and most complete adult
fossil of a human ancestor that has been found in Africa to date. After being exhibited at the Bowers Museum, the rare and fragile
hominid fossil was returned to the
National Museum of Ethiopia in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The tour of Lucy was controversial and subsequently casts have been circulated instead. The international exhibition was organized by the Houston Museum of Natural Science in collaboration with The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Exhibition Coordinating Committee. "First Americans: Tribal Art from North America" (2014) was the first large-scale exhibition featuring the traditional cultures of North America to be shown in China. Organized by the Bowers and drawn from the permanent collection, the exhibition included pottery, wicker objects, beaded items, textiles, and sculpture. The exhibition traveled to the
Guangdong,
Shanxi, and
Hunan Provincial museums in China, as well as the Museum del Oro de Bogota, where it was titled "Tribal Art from North America/Tradiciones y Trasiciones: Indígenas de Norteamérica." "The Virgin of Guadalupe: Images in
Colonial Mexico" (2016) presented sixty works of art, including paintings, sculpture, engravings, silver, textiles, and other devotional objects from both privately and publicly held Mexican collections. This was the first exhibition presented at a museum in the United States that focused on the depiction of the
Virgin of Guadalupe in Colonial art. It took a holistic view of the religious and social aspects related to the Virgin, showing how she has become a unifying symbol for the people of Mexico and the Americas. This exhibition marked the second occasion the Bowers Museum organized an exhibition on the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first exhibition, "Visions of Guadalupe: Selections from the Museum of the Basilica de Guadalupe" (1995), included 79 paintings, votives, engravings and vestments collected over centuries by the
Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico. ==Kidseum==