The exhibition was organised to celebrate India’s 50 years of independence and started at the National Museum, New Delhi, in October 1997, and then transferred to the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, in 1998. At the time, it was the largest exhibition the British Museum had ever mounted abroad, comprising of over 300 artefacts from its collection.
The artefacts displayed were objects of great antiquity – jewellery, plaques, seals, prints, statuettes, silver platters, sculptures made of bronzes and stone from ancient civilisations, representing the human form.
The images show several Iron and Bronze Age gold and bronze torcs, being admired by museum visitors, including myself condition checking a gold ribbon torc. The process of making the torc entailed beating the gold ingot into a flat band, which was then twisted by the goldsmith from the left to right. The terminals are bent-back to form hooks, clasping the disc-shaped knobs.
Images: Courtesy and ©Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and the British Museum, London, 2021. All rights reserved.
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