Preview Breakfast of the Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan, 5/20/08 – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, 20 May 2008 – Part 1
Washington, D.C.

I apologize kind gentle readers of Wanderwords.com for my recent absence. I’ve been busy closing down my storefront, concentrating on Archaeology, and moving to a new home causing a lack of internet. I will be finishing up the SAA Adventures in Vancouver, B.C. I was presenting to you formerly, but before finishing that series – give you a special event I’m attending right now – due to the news worthiness of these fabulous finds, and the grand opening to the public this coming Saturday … I present to you a new adventure as a intermission to the Vancouver, B.C.

I’m currently in Washington, D.C. attending the press preview of the Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan beginning on Tuesday morning 5/20/2008.

Upon entering the National Gallery of Art, i was asked for my invitation, given my badge and directed downstairs where they would be hosting the Press Breakfast, Preview, and Tasting at 8:30 am. Concourse style, the joint efforts of the National Geographic Society and the National Gallery of Art had a Afghan-style breakfast Buffet and Music presented to us. Mixing and socializing, I wandered and met various members of the Press – dining with authors from United Press and the Chicago Tribune, Ambassadors from Afghanistan as well as Archaeologists and Curators from Afghanistan who were key members of people who saved these antiquities from destruction and theft during the pillage of war. The food and music was fabulous. Soon we would hear the story and contributions to this dispay. I felt extremely honored to be part of this event.

Concourse Breakfast Afghan style
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Afghanistan style breakfast

Washington, D.C.
Extraodinary artifacts uncovered in modern-day Afghanistan – once the heart of the Silk Road linking cultures from Asia to the Mediterranean – long thought stolen or destroyed during some 25 years of conflict until the dramatic announcement of their existence in 2003, begin their United States tour at the National Gallery of Art, Washington – May 25 through September 7, 2008. The exhibition, co-organized by the National Geographic Society and the National Gallery of Art, will travel to the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, October 24, 2008 through January 25, 2009; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 22- May 17, 2009; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 23 through September 20, 2009. After its tour through Paris, Turin, and Amsterdam, the show was reorganized for the United States and accompanied by a new catalogue and a video documentary produced by National Geographic and narrated by the celebrated author, Khaled Hosseini. Revealing Afghanistan’s multicultural heritage are some 228 objects ranging in date from 2200 BC to the second century AD. Drawn from four archaeological sites, they belong to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul and include fragmentary gold bowls with artistic links to Mesopotamia and Indus valley cultures (modern-day Pakistan) from the Bronze Age site of Tepe Fullol; bronze and stone sculptures and a gilded silver plague from the formere Greek colony at Ai Khanum (“Lady Moon”); bronzes, ivories, and painted glassware that had been imported from Roman Egypt, China, and India; and excavated from ancient storerooms discovered in the 1930s and 1940s in Begram; and more than 100 gold ornaments from the “Bactrian Hoard”, found in 1978 in Tillya Tepe, the site of six nomad graves, and revealing a synthesis of Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Siberian styles. The exhibition is organized by the National Geographic Society and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. At the National Gallery of Art the exhibition is made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. It is also supported by the Charles Engelhard Foundation. Corporate support is provided by National Construction and Logistics and Hamed Wardak. The works in the exhibition are the sole property of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.