Two days before the opening of the exhibition “The Saga of Thracian Kings” at the Louvre, it was shown to journalists from France and elsewhere. The first reactions to the more than 1,600 exhibits – gold, silver and bronze artifacts from burials of Thracian notables - were rapturous.

Maria Luisa Raspar, Paris correspondent of the Spanish news agency EFE says: “I am thrilled,” she says. “This ancient culture is a true revelation to me. I knew next to nothing about the Thracians. I would like to thank Bulgaria, the Louvre and the Thracians for having created, preserved and shown us these wonders. Friends advised me to come and see the exhibition. And in truth, the exhibits are superb.”

The artifacts dating back to the 5th-3rd century BC - a time when Thrace presented the dazzling face of the ancient world – are arranged in four small halls in the Louvre’s Richelieu Wing, fashioned to resemble Thracian tomb chambers. Most of the exquisite armour, jewelry and utensils used in religious rituals or during lavish banquets were discovered within the bounds of the Odrysian kingdom close to what is today the town of Kazanluk, a region known as the “Valley of the Thracian Kings”, and with good reason. The central passage between the halls houses the unique bronze head of Seuthes III, riveting the attention of visitors with its piercing eyes and expressive features.

“Very few bronze heads with eyes made of alabaster and glass like this one have come down to us,” comments the French curator of the exhibition Néguine Mathieux. And adds that this is one of the earliest bronze portraits in the world, inasmuch as the different elements, like the clearly discernible scar to the left of the eye are an indication that this is a portrayal of a man that really did exist, most probably Seuthes III, as the inscription on the helmet found inside the same tomb reads. “Unlike other exhibitions of Thracian gold treasures, the one at the Louvre is the first attempt at a comprehensive presentation of this major European culture,” says on his part the Bulgarian curator Totko Stoyanov.

“A magnificent exhibition showing us how many archaeological finds have been unearthed in Bulgaria of late,” says Pierrette Sipos, former teacher of Greek who says she has been to Bulgaria and is now even more eager to return here.

François Caunac from Radio France Culture is an authority on antiquity. “I am fascinated by the incredible artistic diversity and wealth this exhibition offers. There is such a variety of materials used – silver, gold, bronze, ceramics. Even the brocade burial shroud whose material has disintegrated leaving only the gold sequins, collected in a pewter is thrilling to see. Or let us take for example the fact that, according to legend, it was Thracian women that killed Orpheus. Or that they had tattoos on their arms and, something that is very rare in antiquity, wore their hair short.”

Next week large posters announcing the Saga of Thracian Kings exhibition at the Louvre will be put up at 300 subway stations in Paris. A special edition of the Dossiers d’Archéologie magazine, entirely dedicated to the Thracians, is now on sale at newsstands. Most leading French papers and magazines also carry articles about the exhibition.

English version: Milena Daynova