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The Hong Kong Museum of History will launch the large-scale exhibition "Mare Nostrum - Roman Navy and Pompeii" tomorrow (June 8), which will run until August 29. Through invaluable exhibits from Italy, multimedia programmes and 3D animation, visitors will be able to learn about the development of Roman maritime navigation and the formidable force of the Mount Vesuvius eruption that destroyed Pompeii.
Officiating at the opening ceremony today (June 7), the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, said the successful mounting of this exhibition marks a milestone in collaboration between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Italy. He extended his warmest gratitude to the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong and Macau for its ardent support, and congratulated exhibition co-presenters Contemporanea Progetti and Expona for their help in staging this extraordinary exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of History.
Marking the first stop of a world tour, the exhibition in Hong Kong will showcase around 110 sets of invaluable exhibits from about 10 museums and cultural organisations in Italy including Rome, Naples and Pompeii. Highlight exhibits include jewellery made of gold and precious metals and stones, silverware, statues, marble reliefs, artefacts recovered from shipwrecks, and body casts of Pompeii victims which are being brought to Hong Kong for the first time.
Advances in the knowledge and techniques of navigation enabled the Roman Empire to conquer the Mediterranean Sea by the first century AD, greatly influencing regional transport, commerce, leisure and entertainment, warfare and society. In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius, which is located on the west coast of Italy, erupted. Huge waves of volcanic ash and debris destroyed the city of Pompeii and other nearby towns. The Roman navy's attempt to evacuate victims by sea marked one of the first recorded civilian rescue missions in history as well as the high point of Roman navigational development.
Other officiating guests at today's ceremony included the Consul General of Italy in Hong Kong and Macau, Mr Antonello De Riu; the Managing Director of Contemporanea Progetti, Professor Eugenio Martera; the Managing Director of Expona, Dr Alex Susanna; Steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mrs Margaret Leung; the Chairman of the History Museum Advisory Panel, Mr Stanley Wong; the Acting Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Raymond Fan; and the Museum Director of the Hong Kong Museum of History, Ms Belinda Wong.
The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Contemporanea Progetti and Expona, and co-organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History, Contemporanea Progetti and Expona. Solely sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, it is one of the exhibitions in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Series 2016/17.
For more exhibition details, please visit the museum's website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/History/en_US/web/mh/exhibition/current.html or call 2724 9042 for enquiries.
Ends/Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:37
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