#museum-exhibition

#museum-exhibition

They form part of a new exhibition looking at the rebuilding works that took place a century ago, replacing most of the interior behind its famous solid fortress wall with the modern bank that's there today. The exhibition, in the museum's rotunda, shows the various stages of the rebuilding process, from demolition of the old, discoveries of the even older in the basements, and how the current bank building was constructed.

Across the floor and walls sprawl grand mosaics and sculptures depicting lions, piles of gold, thunderbolts and ancient Roman gods. "When this building was created, it was designed as a working bank building. There were people coming and going all day," explains the Bank of England Museum's curator, Jenni Adam. "And immediately they were greeted with this sense of grandeur along with lots and lots of messages about what's happening in this site."

With loans from nearly 50 museums and private collections, nearly all the paintings were displayed in ornate gilded frames-which Van Gogh disliked. Van Gogh's The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at Saint-Rémy) (December 1889) in a typical example of a French Baroque gilded frame-it has been on the painting since it was sold by the dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1947 Cleveland Museum of Art (photograph The Art Newspaper)

The exhibition, titled Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum, features remarkable artifacts like ancient bronze helmets, showcasing the intricacies of gladiatorial life and combat.