New Digital Images Showcase the National Palace Museum Collection

CULVER CITY, CA- January 25, 2002
Luna Imaging and Lee and Lee Communications announced today that more than 9,000 images from the National Palace Museum, Taipei Taiwan, are now available for use with Luna's Insight® software. The images, representing key paintings, jade, bronze, porcelain, and other objects from the Shang through the Qing Dynasties (1600 B.C. - 1912 A.D.), are being made available digitally for the first time.

Through Insight®, users can dynamically view and work online with these images, which are fully cataloged in Chinese and are currently being translated into English. Art, history and Chinese instructors can prepare image lectures virtually anywhere and display Insight presentations in the classroom with digital projectors or monitors. Presentations can be as simple as choosing and sequencing full screen images-or they can incorporate several images at once to show details and side-by-side comparisons.

"By making the Imperial Palace images available for use with Insight, we are able to provide an invaluable resource to students and faculty who will be able to admire and study the treasures of China without leaving their campuses," says Kenneth Wang, Vice President of Lee & Lee. "For the first time, the most comprehensive set of images for understanding early Chinese history can be studied through high quality and easily accessible online images."

Through its support of the digitization of collections like the National Palace Museum Collection, Luna's goal is to make it easy to build comprehensive digital image collections. Collection managers can digitize their own image collections and incorporate them into Luna's Insight® software, license digital images from the growing number of Insight-ready image collections now available or share content with other institutions that use Insight. In the near future, Insight users will also have the opportunity to subscribe to digital image collections through a variety of Luna's content partners.

"We are especially honored to be part of making this stunning collection of images of ancient Chinese works available," says Luna Imaging President Michael Ester. "As the number of Insight-ready collections continues to grow, researchers, professors and students engaged in the study of arts and culture will have a wealth of resources at their finger tips."

Parsons School of Design at New School University, one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation, is the first subscriber to this digital collection and will incorporate it into classroom teaching. Parsons has been using Luna's Insight® software in its Liberal Studies and Foundations programs, specifically its course on "Perspectives in World Art."

Two of the most famous treasures of the National Palace Museum collection are included in the digital collection, including the paintings "Early Spring" and "Travelers on a Mountain Path." Jade masterpieces from the Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty are also a unique offering in this collection. Jade was often made as a gift to offer sacrifices to gods or ancestors, a pledge or as decoration in the home. Bronze pieces in the collection, including weapons, vessels and musical instruments, illustrate some of the central concerns of the societies that formed them, as most of the paraphernalia for early rituals was cast in bronze.

Porcelain pieces from the Sung period constitute the highest achievement of the Chinese potter. Studying these pieces from 960-1279 A.D. is invaluable to students of the Chinese decorative arts. Auspicious objects and Ruyi Scepters from the Qing Dynasty feature elaborate decorations, and writing implements illustrate the appreciation for writing as scripture, literature and calligraphy in Chinese culture.

A limited set of Insight ready images is currently viewable in Insight at Lee and Lee Communication's Web Site, www.cuturalcafe.com. In the near future, Lee and Lee will offer customers the ability to view the entire collection of over 9,000 images using Insight. For more information about the collection contact Kenneth Wang at 408-922-2680 or via email at Kenneth@culturalcafe.com.

Luna Imaging, Inc., is based in Culver City, CA. Luna Imaging (www.lunamaging.com) enables museums, libraries and archives to build and distribute high-quality visual collections in digital form and provides sophisticated software to access and use image collections over the Internet.

For more information contact: