Greek Olympic Art Exhibit from the British Museum at the Shanghai Museum

July 18, 2008

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A Chinese family look at the discus thrower during the ancient Greek exhibit related to the Olympic games. The collection belongs to the British Museum and can be seen in Shanghai. - Photo: José Álvarez Díaz

SHANGHAI.- Less than one month before the Olympic Games begin in Beijing, the famous discus thrower and more than a hundred sculptures and porcelains from ancient Greece have visited China, where thanks to a temporary exhibit in Shanghai have been discovered by over 330,000 Chinese visitors at the Shanghai Museum.

The pieces, from the collection of the British Museum in London, where presented for the first time in the country in a show that, during two and a half months, has allowed citizens in Shanghai, who are very proud of the Olympic Games that will be held in China this year, to understand its origins and how the games were in ancient times.

“Between all the works of art, the discus thrower is a universal symbol of classic Greek art and of the Olympic Games and it is very extraordinary that it leave London to be shown here in China for a few months; this has been a great opportunity”, said Lu Pangliang, from the Department of Exhibitions at the Shanghai Museum.

“There are a lot of people who has been interested in the exhibit, because they know the modern Olympic Games, but they do not know where they come from and desire to comprehend how they were in ancient times, when everything was so different,” Lu explained.

For the Chinese expert, this exhibit is important because it allows people to see the origins of European art and to compare it, without leaving the building, with the bronzes that were made in China, at about the same time as the Greeks and to see that both “show a similar sensibility, with different aesthetics.”

As a museum of ancient Chinese art, Shanghai Museum possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art. Its rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world. In 1992, the Shanghai municipal government allocated to the Museum a piece of land at the very center of the city, the People’s Square, as its new site. The whole construction took three years, from August 1993 to its inauguration on October 12th, 1996. The 29.5 meters high new building has a construction space of 39,200 square meters. Its unique architectural form of a round top with a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky, is a distinguished architectural combination of traditional feature and modern spirit. The present Shanghai Museum has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls. It extends warm welcome to the visitors from all over the world. Visit : www.shanghaimuseum.net/en/index.asp

Source www.artknowledgenews.com

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