An exhibition on Egyptian culture and its influences on Greek and Roman civilization will take place from 27 March to 9 September 2018 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, USA. The largest museums in the world will lend about 200 works for the exhibition “Egypt – Greece – Rome: Cultures in Contact”, which deals with the relations that have developed between these three cultures, from the Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 BC) to the late Roman years, with a center of gravity in Egypt.

From Greece, 25 antiquities were requested, selected by the organizers, mainly based on their Egyptian origins or their influences from Egyptian works, with most of them coming from the National Archaeological Museum and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion and the rest of them from the museums in Dion, Mycenae, Nafplion, Rhodes and Vatheos Samos.

Their temporary borrowing was discussed at the Central Archaeological Council (CAC), whose members gave the “green light” for 20 of them. The five that will not be sent to the United States are fragile or emblematic works such as the marble statue of Antinoos from Marathon (150-170 AD), belonging to the Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum.

In the meeting was also discussed the case of an ancient artifact that is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of New York and which was proposed by the organizers to participate in the exhibition. It is a marble lion attacking a bull (about 525-500 BC), probably from a pediment drum. As found by the Directorate for the Management of the National Archives of Monuments, Documentation and Protection of Cultural Goods, the piece is similar with one artifact in the National Archaeological Museum, which allows the Greek side to claim it. Indeed, it is likely that the two sections come from the Temple of Dionysus in the South Acropolis.

The exhibition at the Gheti Center is the result of the Memorandum of Co-operation on Cultural Affairs signed between Getty and the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs in 2011. In this context, the US Museum will construct special bases of anti-seismic support for works hosted at the National Archaeological Museum by providing the relevant know-how to Greek experts, while the Ministry of Culture will participate in lending artifacts to the international exhibition “Egypt – Greece – Rome: Attached Cultures”.