More than 130 items from the Louvre Museum are currently on show in Beijing's Capital Museum. All items are taken from the Louvre's Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Department. On August 16, China.org.cn took the chance of making a special interview on this exhibition with the two curators, Guo Xiaoling, the curator of Beijing Capital Museum, and Alain Pasquier, curator with the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities at the Louvre Museum. Once in every 50 yearsGuo Xiaoling described the exhibition as "once in every 50 years." He said it's a very great chance for Chinese people to know about another great ancient culture from Greece. The Louvre usually lends less than twenty items at a time. But for this time, a huge face-lift project is ongoing in the Louvre Museum and to be finished in two years. All these treasures would be stored in warehouses, which made a convenience for the Capital Museum to invite so many items to China. After the face-lift project, it's impossible for the Louvre Museum to lend so many antiques for a single exhibition. "Most of these items are seldom shown out of the Louvre Museum -- after I became the head of the department, this is the first time. So I believe these is the most beautiful and well-known selection from the Louvre Museum," Alain Pasquier said.The more than 130 items, presenting an all-round view of ancient Greece are shown. The exhibits cover life, religion, and the celebrities of ancient Greece. Well-known items like statues of Aphrodite and Aries are also on display.When asking which one is the most important exhibit, Alain Pasquier said, "It's hard to decide which one is the most important or which ones is the front-line items, because to our researchers every one is worth well-protected and carefully-studied. I believe there'll be different 'most beautiful artwork' in everyone's heart after visiting this exhibition." "Even a single coin from the ancient time is treasurable, because it recorded activities of ancient people," Guo complemented.The well-known masterpieces including, the portrait sculpture of Aphrodite, the sculpture of a crying woman on bended knees and many ancient Greece potteries, including one describes the war between God and Titan. The exhibition covers three areas: "Life in Ancient Greece" features pottery; "Ancient Greek Religion" includes sculptures based on Greek myths; and "Great Figures from Ancient Greece" offers sculptures of Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Great "pirate" masterpiecesAll items displayed are in the ancient Greece from 500 AD to 400 AD, which was the most important period in ancient Greek culture, when the sculpture art reached its peak. But the most interesting thing is: almost one third of these artworks are "replicas." Mr. Alain explained "replica" is not a derogatory word at that time. More than that, we should thanks for the copies of these masterpieces. Most of the Greek masterpieces were copied in Rome Times, which is about 400 AD, when Rome conquered Greece. At that time wars between Rome and Greece stretched for quite a long period. And most of the Greece sculptures were made of bronze. During the war, many great works were destroyed or melted to be made into weapons.At last Rome conquered Greece, but at the same time, was conquered by the Greece civilizations. With aesthetic influences upon Greece, getting a replica of masterpiece from Greece became more and more popular for those rich people. And they invited the most famous artist, most of whom were Greek people, to copy those masterpieces. It’s a great honor to display such a replica in rich people's house at that time.They were not to the zeal for copying works, but for the original masterpieces of Greece. And thanks to these replicas, visitors can enjoy such brilliant civilization of Greece after more than 2400 years. Thousands audiences per dayThe Capital Museum accommodated 4,638 visitors in the first day of the exhibition, 7096 ones for the second day and steadily about 5000 persons per day recently. Alain Pasquier committed this was also a huge number on the exhibition history of the Louvre Museum.Guo said the previous exhibition from British Museum attracted about 2,000 to 3,000 visitors at the beginning and gradually increased until more than 9,000 people crowded in the museum at last a few days. But he never imagined the Louvre Museum treasures could magnetize so many visitors at the start.The exhibition of British Museum accommodated 200 thousand visitors in two month, and Gou predicted there'll be about 400 thousand visitors in the three month exhibition from the Louvre Museum. Secure the safety of these articlesAlthough it's a long way to transport these artworks from France to China, the developed package technology nowadays secures the safety of them. "It wouldn't be more dangerous to move these items from France to China than from a showroom to another one inside the Louvre Museum," Mr. Alain said.After receiving these items, the Capital Museum protected potteries and bronze wares in showcase with invariable temperature and humidity.Some audiences complain the lights of the expiation room are too dim, and this is also a kind of protection measure. Strong light do harm to these antiques -- which is also the reason why taking photos is forbidden in the museum. More than a mere exhibitionThere are still many lectures during the exhibition. Many experts on the Greece civilization, the Louvre Museum and any aspects connected with the exhibition are invited to give lecture in the museum, of course, including the two curators.The first lecture was made by Mr. Alain when the exhibition debuted. He recalled, "I was really impressed by so many audience listened my lecture so earnestly and after the lecture they were still not willing to go, talked with me and asked autograph from me."Comparing with the British Museum exhibition, this time more information was provided on the signs under every item, which can help visitors get better understanding of the Greece civilization. Nice albums, with written caption and even a brief history of Greece, are also available in the Capital Museum, Guo introducedThe exhibition opened to the public on August 12 and will conclude on November 9. The ticket price for the exhibition is 50 yuan.