The world's greatest collection of antiquities is preparing for an invasion by two-thousand-year-old soldiers from China - Emperor Qin Shi Huang's men of clay.
Back in the good old days when men were men and women were, well, sometimes a bit wimpy, Ella Fitzgerald sang about how the British Museum had lost its charm. That was because she was anxiously waiting for her man to arrive and worrying in case he didn’t. Once he showed up (romantically appearing through the fog) everything was sweetness and light and, although it doesn’t say so in the song, they probably pranced off to the Museum and lived happily ever after. Or something like that.
Sorry Ella, but if there is any building in the world that could never lose its charm it is the British Museum. One of London’s greatest landmarks , it is about to host one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century - China’s Terracotta Army. Twenty or so of the figures will be on show from September 13, 2007 - 6 April, 2008. This will be the largest number of the warriors from X’ian ever seen outside of China.
The warriors will be housed in the former British Museum reading room, the same room where Karl Marx studied and researched for his major work Das Kapital. Many other famous people are connected with this famous room, which nowadays is no longer used as a place of study and is open to the general public.
Plans to build a new 1,000 sq metre space in which to hold large-scale exhibitions are underway but in the meantime the warriors will have to make do with the reading room.
So, if you are in London, never mind about hanging about mournfully waiting for your man/women to show up, get yourself off to the British Museum for this magnificent exhibition’.
For further information and ticket sales and prices go to:
http://www.ifbarts.com/tickets/slink.buy/bmuseum/p.KP3/The_First_Emperor:_China's_Terracotta_Army--British_Museum.html
