“Silk Roads” exhibition to be opened at the British Museum
Fourteen artifacts from the museum collections of Uzbekistan will be showcased in the UK's premier museum
On September 26, 2024, the British Museum in London will open the “Silk Roads” exhibition in the Sainsbury Exhibition Gallery. Fourteen artifacts from the museum collections of Uzbekistan will be showcased in the UK’s premier museum.
Photo: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation
The exhibition includes five geographical zones, guiding visitors along their own Silk Road journeys and displaying over 300 items from various museum collections.
Many of these pieces will be shown in London for the first time, including one of the oldest sets of chess pieces and a monumental six-meter wall painting from the “Hall of Ambassadors” in Afrasiab (Samarkand), Uzbekistan. This mural provides insights into the cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians from Central Asia, who played a key role in international trade during that period.
Photo: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation
The Art and Culture Development Foundation of Uzbekistan has contributed 14 artifacts from the country’s museum collections for the Silk Roads exhibition. Among them are the wall painting of the Red Hall of the Varakhsha Palace (8th century), an ossuary with a lid (6th–7th centuries), a silver dish with Sogdian inscriptions (5th century), a jug from Kafyr-kala (6th–7th centuries), and other unique archaeological finds, highlighting Central Asia’s significance in the history of the Silk Road.
A scientific catalog called Silk Roads will be published to accompany the exhibition.
The Silk Roads exhibition will be open from September 26, 2024, to February 23, 2025, in the Sainsbury Exhibition Gallery at the British Museum.