Greece’s Central Archaeological Council approved on Wednesday the temporary loan of a line of exhibits within the framework of a five-year memorandum of cooperation between the Acropolis Museum and the Shanghai Museum and the 2017 Greece – China Year of Cultural Exchanges and Cooperation.

Two masterpieces from its collection at the Acropolis Museum will be travelling to China for temporary exhibition at the Shanghai Museum while China will also send two of its most precious artefacts from the Shanghai Museum.

Greece will be loaning a marble statue of a Kore (520-510 BCE) one of the most beautiful and well-preserved sculptures of the Acropolis, and a red-figure lekanida lid with a Dionysian scene (350-325 BCE).

Both artefacts still retain traces of their original colouring, offering valuable information regarding their period.

The first exhibit Greece is receiving from China is a composition painting on paper entitled Traveling along the Clear Water created by Wu Hong, painter of the Qing Dynasty.

The second exhibit Acropolis will host is a Zi Zhong Jiang pan, or bronze wash basin, inside of which there are figures of aquatic birds, frogs, turtles and fish, again dating back to the 7th century BCE (Early Chunqiu Shidai Period or Spring and Autumn Period) which was made for Princess Zi Zhong Jiang.

The exhibition of the ancient Greek objects in China will take place from 11 January to 8 April 2018 and the Chinese objects will be in Athens from 28 October to 30 April 2018.