Posted on 02/07/2007 5:46:51 PM PST by blam
Terracotta army sets off to conquer Britain
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correrspondent
Last Updated: 1:35am GMT 08/02/2007
In pictures: Terracotta Warriors collection
China's "terracotta army" is marching on London to bring the capital its greatest exhibition for a generation.
Some of the 8,000 terracotta warriors. A dozen will go on show at the British Museum in September
In a spectacular deal with China, the British Museum is to display some of the famous life-size figures from the second century BC found in the west of the country in 1974.
The Chinese have agreed to loan not only a dozen of the warriors — the largest number it has ever let out of the country — but also similar terracotta figures of musicians, acrobats and bureaucrats, which were discovered more recently and have not travelled abroad before.
The exhibition, titled First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, with other little-known treasures from the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi, will open in September.
It is expected to be the biggest crowd-pulling exhibition in this country since the British Museum's display of the 3,500-year-old Tutankhamun treasures 35 years ago.
Then a staggering 1.7 million people — more than three times the number for any other gallery exhibition held in Britain before or since — filed through the turnstiles.
The museum warned yesterday that it may not be able to cope if similar numbers want to see the Chinese treasures and advised visitors to book tickets as soon as possible. They go on sale today.
With no large exhibition space, the museum will use its Round Reading Room for an exhibition for the first time. However, it will only hold 400 people at a time.
Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, said it was likely that hours would be extended — but even if the exhibition was open 24 hours a day for the seven months that it will run, it could not accommodate the numbers at the Tutankhamun show.
The discovery of life-size terracotta soldiers by three peasants sinking a well at Xi'an caused a sensation in 1974. Nearly 8,000 warriors have been located in three pits, with more recent finds from other excavations since 1990.
Among the 200 exhibits at the British Museum will be two terracotta musicians, two officials or bureaucrats — carrying knives on their belts used to scrape record-keeping mistakes off bamboo writing sheets — and two acrobats.
Also being lent are two half-size bronze chariots, a suit of armour made from stone — thought to ward off evil spirits — and a number of full-size bronze birds that were found in an underground river.
It is the largest group of material from the reign of Qin Shihuangdi (260-210BC), the First Emperor of China, ever lent abroad. Mr MacGregor said: "These are things that everybody wants to see, and everybody should see."
The figures are "very fragile", and will be transported in several aircraft — so that not all of them will be lost in the event of a crash — in padded, tailor-made packing cases.
France has already surrendered to this army.
The authorities sent him back to the block with jody. 
He looks like an extra from "Willy Wonka".
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