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Melania Trump announces restoration of Blue Room furniture
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, As- sociated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Blue Room is getting a new old look.
Melania Trump has announced the restoration of a collection of fur- niture made for the White House by Frenchman Pierre-Antoine Bellange. The first lady says a team of curators
has spent more than a decade restor- ing the furniture. The Committee for the Preservation of the White House approved the restoration project. President James Monroe bought
the Bellange suite in 1817. Almost all of it had been auctioned off in 1859.
Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy began reacquiring original
pieces in 1961, with replica chairs made to supplement the originals. Both the original and reproduction pieces have remained in the Blue Room since the Kennedy adminis- tration.
Mrs. Trump plans to reinstate the Bellange suite in the Blue Room in the fall.
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