I could smell the room as soon as I came up the stairway to the second floor. A warm and inviting fragrance, like you would expect from a pot of honey.

Following my nose, I found a narrow room the size of a tiny broom closet. The Wax Room. Standing guard was a friendly but watchful museum staffer. Two people can fit in this room. Barely. A single bare light bulb suspended from the ceiling lights it.

To create this room, artist Wolfgang Laib heated 450 pounds of beeswax. Luckily, no bees. He painstakingly troweled the softened wax, like plaster, to the walls, smoothing it with an iron and hair drier. The result -- an intense, warm golden color glowing in the light of that single bulb. The walls beg to be touched and sniffed. Of course that's a museum no-no. Not wanting to get thrown out, I restrained myself.

When Laib visited the museum for the first time, he was awestruck by the spiritual intensity of the Rothko Room. 

Feeling a kinship with Mark Rothko, he wanted his Wax Room to be situated as close to Rothko’s work as possible.

Laib got his wish. Wax Room is located near the Rothko Room. But it's a little too small. Claustrophobic even. And despite the delightful aroma, having a guard hovering two feet away does not lend itself to a transformative experience.