Cleveland Museum of Art plans to send artwork on world tours

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Cleveland Museum of Art, closed for renovation and expansion, announced plans Thursday for a series of worldwide tours displaying more than 500 of its paintings, sculptures and other items in its collection covering 6,000 years.
Over the next four years, the museum will mount touring exhibitions at museums in North America, Europe and Asia.
The tours begin May 26 with a "From Monet to Picasso" exhibit at the Beijing World Art Museum, heading to the Mori Arts Center in Tokyo in September, South Korea's Seoul Arts Center in December and the Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia in summer 2007.
The final stops will be back at the Cleveland Museum of Art in fall 2007 and the Frist Art Center in Nashville, Tenn., in spring 2008.
A "Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures" exhibit of early Christian, Byzantine and western Medieval art opens in summer 2007 at the National Museum of Bavaria and moves to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in fall 2007.
New York's Frick Collection will host an exhibit of the Cleveland museum's European masterpieces Nov. 8 through Jan. 28.
The museum said schedules will be announced later for traveling exhibits of Japanese and Chinese art from its collection.
The museum is undergoing a $258 million renovation and expansion that will continue through 2011.