 My name is Yekaterina Barbash and I'm the curator of Egyptian classical and ancient Near Eastern art at the Brooklyn Museum. These reliefs decorated the Northwest Palace of the Assyrian King Asher Nasirpal II almost 3,000 years ago. Once brightly painted, the images of the King surrounded by winged protective beings called Apkalu adorned seven different rooms of the palace. Built using forced labor, the palace stood in a new capital city called Nimrud in modern Iraq. In 1845, the Ottomans who ruled the area gave permission to excavate the palace. Many reliefs were sent to the British Museum and some were sold. The Brooklyn Museum acquired the 12 slabs displayed in this gallery in 1955 and installed them the following year. After nearly five decades on display, six of the 12 reliefs were conserved in 2002. Thanks to generous funding by Bank of America, the remaining six have now been conserved to bring them to the same state of preservation and structural stability, a process that took over two years. My name is Vicki Schussler. I'm a Project Objects Conservator in the Brooklyn Museum's Conservation Department. Our conservators first documented the reliefs in the gallery using digital photography with visible light as well as ultraviolet and infrared radiation. We also created diagrams and written reports detailing the materials and the condition of the reliefs. For example, sometime after excavation, mortar was applied that discolored some areas of stone and obscured original carving and cuneiform text. The mortar is harder than the stone, making it very difficult to remove without damaging the reliefs. We used a laser to help reduce the mortar and other non-original materials, revealing original carving like this polemette. In order to fully conserve the reliefs, we had to remove them from the gallery wall. We began by removing previous installation materials, including plaster, concrete, metal, and historic newspaper dating to 1956 from around, behind, and beneath the reliefs. Moving the reliefs always presents a challenge, as some weigh up to 3,500 pounds. Many were broken into multiple fragments during 3,000 years of disuse and were later cut down during excavation. Our team worked with outside experts to secure each fragment so that rigging proceeded safely. We cleaned each fragment, removing plaster from 1956, and reducing grime using hand tools, the laser, and solvents. Conservators and art handlers worked together to join the relief's large fragments using carbon fiber pins and chemically stable adhesives. We were also able to reintegrate small, loose fragments that we were surprised to discover had been sealed between the wall and one of the reliefs during the 1956 installation. This discovery allowed us to recover areas of carving that haven't been seen for more than 60 years. After reassembly, reliefs were fitted with welded steel armatures that support the objects and facilitated reinstallation. This updated installation reunites Brooklyn's pairs of reliefs, which have been separated for at least 83 years. When installed in 1956, the reliefs were placed to evenly distribute the weight around the gallery, separating original pairings. Today, the reliefs are aligned as they would have been in their original architectural context, offering a better understanding of the iconography and physicality of the palace.