Detroit Institute of Arts opens new Ancient Middle East Gallery
On Thursday, October 1, 2015, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will celebrate the grand opening of their new Ancient Middle East Gallery.
The DIA’s collection of the arts of the ancient Middle East, a region encompassing present-day Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, includes more than 500 works spanning over 8,500 years (8000 BCE to 650 CE).
The revamped ancient Middle East gallery presents 178 key pieces in an installation that illuminates their significance as well as their connections to sophisticated technologies and art-making in the emergence of the world’s earliest civilizations and empires — as well as to our modern world.
In light of the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, we are devastated by the senseless destruction of ancient artworks. The new gallery houses stone reliefs depicting a powerful Assyrian king, as well as an eagle-headed winged guardian, that come from a palace destroyed this year by ISIS militants.
In keeping with the DIA’s longstanding commitment to preserving art for this and future generations, we are delighted that the new gallery will make the museum’s relevant collection of ancient Middle Eastern art accessible to large and diverse audiences.
Complied by Arab America