Fans of antiquities should head to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where they will be greeted by a group of the life-sized terracotta warriors who guarded Emperor Qin Shihuang’s tomb, including one of the rare examples with traces of pigment, as well as more than 160 ancient works of Chinese art. Another highlight is a smi-hude figure of outstanding anatomical accuracy that shows the influence of Western art. Ages of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 BC – AD 220) is on view from 3 April – 16 July 2017.
For an alternative twist on antiquities don’t miss Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable at the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi in Venice (until 3 December). Damien Hirst has spent a decade creating hundreds of works supposedly lost in a legendary shipwreck over 2,000 years ago, covered in ‘natural’ coral, shells and barnacles. The fictional story goes that the freed slave, Cif Amotan II, built up a huge fortune which sank and was lost on it’s way to be housed in a new temple, and which has now been dredged up and put on show for the public. From the giant sculpture, Demon with Bowl to a pharaoh resembling Pharrell, sphinxes, busts, bears and skulls, the show is an assault on the senses and simultaneously striking and monstrous.
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