The galleries of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art were reopened to the public on October 19, 1999, after nearly two years of renovation and reinstallation. The focus of new construction has been the central gallery of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Gallery for Assyrian Art, which recreates an audience hall in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 B.C.) at Nimrud in northern Iraq. The monumental stone reliefs in this space have been opened to daylight from above and the setting reconstructed with ceiling beams set at the approximate height of the palace rooms of the ninth century B.C. Objects in an adjacent gallery illustrate the ivory carving and other art of the Assyrian empire and its neighbors.