The Hong Kong Museum of Art announced on Wednesday that it will hold an exhibition which provide the public with a rare opportunity to view some 270 artifacts selected from the British Museum.

 

Running from Sept. 14 to Dec. 2, the exhibition entitled Treasures of the World's Cultures from the British Museum, will feature about 270 artifacts covering a vast span of time from two million years ago to the present day.

 

The exhibits include sculptures, ceramics, wood carvings, jewelry, drawings and prints selected to give visitors a glimpse of the diversified arts and cultures of ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, Korea, America and Oceania.

 

Highlight items include an Egyptian wooden mummy-board "The Unlucky Mummy" of early 22nd Dynasty dated about 945 BC; a 13th century Egyptian brass "Astrolabe" with silver inlay, a marble Roman statue of Dionysos of 2nd century; a "Queen's lyre" of about 2600-2400 BC found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur; a walrus ivory chess-piece made in about 1150-1200 and found in Scotland, a portrait-head of Euripides, the leading playwright of Classical Athens, and a nude man drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

 

The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong and the Trustees of the British Museum.

 

Officiating at Wednesday's press conference also included Director of Leisure and Cultural Services of Hong Kong Thomas Chow, British Consul-General of Hong Kong Stephen Bradley and some other guests.

 

The exhibition had also been displayed in Beijing and Taiwan before moving to Hong Kong which will be the last leg.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2007)