April 13, 2001

10:57 PM

In search of the real Cleopatra:an exhaustive collection of artifacts exploring the history and the myth of the Queen of the Nile is currently on display at the British Museum. It will run through August 26. (The exhibition will travel state side and be at the Field Museum in Chicago from October 20 through March 3, 2002.)
posted by tamim (5 comments total)

Interesting, but shouldn't the museum return some of the stuff that they stole from other cultures? Sorry, that would take a way all of the museum's exhibits, or at least most of them.
posted by Bag Man at 11:47 PM on April 13, 2001

Some reviews generated so far:

"Cleopatra was short, fat and ugly."

"No she wasn't, she was beautiful!"

"Okay, well, so what if she was a little rounded?"
posted by lagado at 5:38 AM on April 14, 2001

bagman, I believe that it is chiefly the Elgin marbles that are disputed in terms of ownership. Just about everything else, whether you're looking at the British Museum or any other, was purchased and exported legally.

But what you're talking about -- repatriation -- is a difficult conundrum for the museum community. I think we covered it well enough back here.

I think first of all we have to remember that standards of beauty were a bit different in those days. By all accounts Cleo had an engaging personality. Maybe it was a matter of the one complementing the other?

I just want to know if she really had herself delivered to Caesar rolled up into a carpet. That's élan, baby!
posted by dhartung at 10:09 AM on April 14, 2001

Come on, we all know this is what Cleopatra really looked like.
posted by owillis at 10:43 AM on April 14, 2001

Sorry, here's one more:

Infamy! Infamy! Patronising, cynical... how did the British Museum get its Cleopatra exhibition so wrong?
posted by lagado at 5:42 AM on April 15, 2001