Online Curator’s introduction to Luxury and power: Persia to Greece

Join exhibition curator Jamie Fraser and Keeper of the Department of the Middle East Paul Collins (Chair) in this online talk as they discuss the context, scope, themes and highlights of this phenomenal exhibition.
 
Through dazzling objects from countries from Afghanistan to Greece, they explore a complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. The royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects in gold, silver and glass as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age, in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.