"Luxury and power: Persia to Greece" at the British Museum

*Buy a ticket in advance to be sure of getting in.*

Following a successful visit to "China's Hidden Century" at the British Museum, another Friday evening at the sort of exhibition they do so well - "Luxury and power: Persia to Greece" (more info below).

When we've seen enough we'll go to a nearby pub, the Swan in Cosmo Place, which has pub food & a wide range of beers.

Tickets
Standard tickets are £15 from
https://ticketing.britishmuseum.org/luxury-and-power-persia-greece/1328
(but discounts for the disabled, jobseekers, students and National Art Pass holders, and 2 for 1 for students).
Please book for 18:20 entry. This should give plenty of time before chucking out (about 20:15 - the British Museum say they close at 20:30 on Fridays, but the process starts rather earlier). This is close to the end of the run and we won't be the only people who find Friday evening a good time to go, so it could sell out.

Getting there
The main entrance to the Museum is in Great Russell Street, a few minutes' walk from Tottenham Court Road tube. There's a bag check to get into the Museum, but with pre-booked tickets you can join the priority queue (usually very short). There's also a back entrance in Montague Place (which usually has little or no queue) a few minutes from Russell Square tube, also walkable from Euston Square or King's Cross.

From the main entrance, go ahead into the Great Court & turn left - we'll find somewhere out of the crush in that corner. From the back entrance, go ahead into the Great Court and go to the far right corner.

There's a cloakroom on the left after the main entrance, and there are loos under the Great Court. If you arrive early, there's plenty to look at free in the permanent collection!

The idea
The Persian empire was held together by spectacular luxury goods. The King of Kings had to have the finest clothes, drinking cups, whatever, in the world. Ties with his subordinates were cemented by exchanges of magnificent gifts.
Athens, however, was a democracy of clean-living equals, where anything that looked as if you thought you were better than other people was unacceptable... only of course it wasn't really: the rich and ambitious just had to be discreetly ostentatious.
Then Greece conquered Persia... and Persian standards conquered Greece.

The exhibits
Gold, silver, glass, ceramic, cloth... Things that were once magnificent, or still are, or pictures of them, or cheap imitations of them. Many from the British Museum's own collections, others borrowed from e.g. Armenia and Paris - but most of all, the Panagyurishte Treasure, nine spectacular gold vessels lent from Bulgaria. (Though when the Bulgarians saw the BM display they asked if they could have all the bits afterwards as they thought it looked better than they'd ever managed.)

As well as the exhibition page at
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/luxury-and-power-persia-greece
there are reviews at
https://thelondonmagazine.org/review-the-british-museums-luxury-power-persia-to-greece-by-frances-forbes-carbines/
https://lovelondonloveculture.com/2023/05/08/review-luxury-and-power-persia-to-greece-british-museum/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/03/luxury-and-power-review-bender-persians-greeks-british-museum
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/luxury-and-power-persia-to-greece-review-british-museum-london-96qrnk0wk
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/exhibitions/luxury-and-power-persia-to-greece-british-museum-review-rhyton-drinking-b1078103.html
https://www.timeout.com/london/art/luxury-and-power-persia-to-greece
https://www.culturewhisper.com/r/visual_arts/luxury_and_power_the_british_museum/17508
https://aspectsofhistory.com/luxury-power-persia-to-greece-at-the-british-museum/