Thracian Exhibition Is Getty Museum’s Third Event Presenting Interactions of Greece and Rome with Other Cultures, Director Timothy Potts Says

The exhibition, Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, is the third part of the "Classical World in Context" Program of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which explores the various forms of interaction linking ancient Greece and Rome with other cultures in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond, the director of the museum, Timothy Potts, said at the opening of the exhibition on Sunday.

The two previous events highlighted the relations of the Classical World with Egypt (2018) and Persia (2022), two cultures which were geographically separated from Greece and Rome, respectively, by the Mediterranean Sea and Syria-Mesopotamia, Potts said.

He noted that Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova has played a crucial role in organizing the current exhibition. He also singled out the contributions of Culture Minister Nayden Todorov, Bulgarian Consul General in Los Angeles Boiko Hristov and his counterparts from Greece, Romania and Turkiye.

The Bulgarian segment of Ancient Thrace and the Classical World features over 150 exhibits from 14 museums, accounting for more than 90% of all items displayed. It presents major discoveries related to ancient Thrace such as the gold treasures of Valchitran and Panagyurishte, artefacts from the Golyama Kosmatka Tumulus and vessels from the Treasure of Rogozen. The items span a period of more than two millennia, from the Late Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) to the time of the Roman Empire, and show the important place of Thrace in the ancient world, the National Archaeology Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said in a press release. Leading world museums are also contributing to the show: the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Getty.