Ancient Olympics shows in Shanghai

"The Ancient Olympic Games," an exhibition on loan from the British Museum, will go on display from May 1 at the Shanghai Museum.

"This is our third cooperation with the British Museum following the ancient Egyptian relics and the Assyrian civilization," said Li Feng, the museum spokesman.

"We are sure that locals will be very interested in this exhibition with the Olympics taking place in Beijing in a few months."

The 108-work exhibition features statues, ceramics, bronze and gold artefacts, precious stones and silver coins dating back to the ancient Greek civilization.

Li Zhongmou, the director of the museum's exhibition department, said the highlight of the exhibition is a marble statue entitled "discus thrower." The statue shows a young naked athlete caught a moment before releasing the discus.

"In fact the limbs and torso are artificially arranged to correspond with Greek ideas of balance and rhythm," Li said.

The marble statue is not only an emblem of the ancient Olympic Games but of the ancient Greeks as well.

It is a Roman bronze, a copy of the work created by the Greek sculptor Myron in the middle of the fifth century BC.

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