In an exhibition dedicated to the cultures of the Mediterranean, hosted for three years at the Museum of Civilisations from Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM) in Marseille, 40 Greek works of art from Athenian museums, such as the Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, the Epigraphic Museum, the Byzantine and Christian Museum, as well as the collections of the Archaeological Museum at Heraklion (Crete), and the 25th, the 3rd, and the 15th Ephorates of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities.
The loans of the antiquities are either long-term (April 2013-April 2016) or short-term (April 2013-December 2013 or 2014), as some of the objects will be exhibited throughout the three-year exhibition “The Gallery of the Mediterranean” and others for shorter periods of time. The museum, which will soon open its gates to the public, is located at the entrance to the Old Port of Marseille, and divided in two buildings “floating between water and sky.” The exhibition about the Mediterranean will be hosted on the ground floor of the J4 building of 15,000 m2, and will place the Mediterranean world in perspective with other comparable regions of the globe: the world located around the China Sea (Yellow Sea) or the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mediterranean, though it has never been a homogenous political entity, is nevertheless a basin of specific civilisations, organised around singularities. For this initial presentation, four of these features have been selected at the exhibition.