Crossword Genius

Decree covering most of paintings in old Chinese office (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

mandarinate

'old chinese office' is the definition.
(office of a mandarin)

'decree covering most of paintings in' is the wordplay.
'decree' becomes 'mandate' (I've seen this before).
'covering most of paintings' becomes 'rina' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mandate' placed around 'rina' is 'MANDARINATE'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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