Portals to Shangri-La

The Olgethorpe University Museum of Art in Atlanta has long specialized in exhibiting art from around the world. So when China prevented Tibet from participating in Atlanta's 1996 Olympic Games, the Dalai Lama sent his private art collection to Oglethorpe instead, for a groundbreaking exhibit called The Mystical Arts of Tibet.

This year the Museum decided to honor the 800th anniversary of the founding of Mongolia by exhibiting sacred Buddhist masterpieces from the Zanabazar Mongolia National Fine Arts Museum. The exhibit's legendary Buddhist curator, Glenn H. Mullin, and the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art's director, Lloyd Nick, worked for more than a year to put the exhibit together.

But just days before it was to be shipped to Atlanta, the Mongolian government collapsed and the shipment was stopped. In a story filled with obstacles at every turn, the intrepid team of Glenn Mullin and Lloyd Nick call upon generous American collectors, who save the day, allowing great Mongolian art to come to Georgia right on schedule!

Visit the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art's website.