Ambassador of Greece to China Evgenios Kalpyris Photo: Courtesy of the Greek Embassy in China

A new exhibition, The Greek: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, featuring a rare glimpse of Greek civilization, an ancient civilization that helped form world history, literature, science and art kicked off at the Hunan Museum in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province on Tuesday.

A total of 270 masterpieces from dozens of ancient Greek museums are on display, according to the Greek Embassy in China. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Greek Embassy in China

Visitors will have the opportunity to admire exquisite treasures such as gold jewelry, rare bronze artifacts, pottery, sculptures, and other antiquities which tell the story of Ancient Greek civilization, from the prehistoric period to the beginning of the Hellenistic Greek era.

The exhibition, which includes seven sections, not only tells the life of the Cycladic merchants in the Aegean, the officials of Minoan Crete and the Mycenaean rulers, unfolds the exploits of the Homeric heroes and the athletes of the Olympic games, and follows the life of the citizens in ancient Athens, but also demonstrates the stories of the gold-plated warriors and aristocrats of Macedonia, finally reaching the depths of the Hellenistic world of Alexander the Great.   

Photo: Courtesy of the Greek Embassy in China

A timeline of Chinese and Greek milestones is one of the highlights of the event, offering visitors the chance to learn more about the long history of both China and Greece. Meanwhile, it features immersive experiences for visitors as the exhibition hall utilizes numerous Greek elements to recreate scenes from the battle of the Sparta. 

The Hunan Museum marks the first leg of the exhibition's China tour, followed by the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, from June to November, 2024, and then the Capital Museum in Beijing from December 2024 to May 2025. 

The current exhibition will run until May 18, 2024 at the Hunan Museum, according to the embassy. The tour was organized by the Ministry of Culture of Greece in collaboration with three prominent museums in China - the Hunan Museum, the Nanjing Museum and the Capital Museum. 

Photo: Courtesy of the Greek Embassy in China

The exhibition in China cements the cultural bond between the two countries, which have found common ground in terms of demanding the return of looted cultural relics in the collection of the British Museum. 

A recent interview with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in which he urged the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, has ignited a fervent response on Chinese social media, echoing a deep-seated desire for the British Museum to repatriate China's lost treasures.