The exhibition, Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is a dream come true, according to Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova, who attended the opening of the show on Sunday. Iotova said: "God has given man the incredible ability to dream. We were dreaming of announcing, in Bulgarian, the launch of an amazing exhibition right here at the Getty Museum."
The display presents the cultural relations between the Thracians and their neighbours over the course of two millennia, from around 1,700 BC until 300 AD. It will be on at the Getty Villa until March 3, 2025. It features over 200 artefacts, including fine articles of gold, silver and bronze, ceramics, inscriptions and stone reliefs, which shed light on Thrace and its links to other ancient cultures in the Mediterranean and beyond.
Iotova said that it was important for this exhibition to take place in the Getty Museum because the people in this museum are guardians of knowledge. "And we are extremely proud that it is here that we can recount the history of the Thracians," she added. The Bulgarian Vice-President expressed her gratitude to the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Culture for their important role in the realisation of the exhibition.
Fourteen museums from Bulgaria with a total of over 150 objects are participating in the exhibition, and Bulgaria's contribution accounts for over 90% of all exhibits included in the display.
The vice-president noted that thanks to Bulgaria today over 300 million people around the world write in Cyrillic. "This is what we Bulgarians are - bearers of spirituality, culture, identity, of self-identity which we are proud of," she added.
Iotova concluded her speech with a quote from the founder of the Institute of Thracology, Prof. Alexander Fol: "Human spirit feels humiliated when it cannot be pitted against another spirit, but must be pitted against the sheer strength of muscles."
/VE/
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