A major exhibition on the nude body in ancient Greece is on show at the British Museum, entitled “Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art.”

The exhibition kicks off on Thursday, showing “some of the most important loans that the museum has ever received” according to the BM Director Neil MacGregor.

Exactly 150 objects are on display.

MacGregor states that the bronze nude athlete found at the seabed off Croatia in 1999 will be shown in Britain for the first time after years of conservation. This is “one of the great archeological discoveries of the last 30 years” said MacGregor. He states that the sculptures shows what Greek bronzes actually looked like.

The BM also features some of the Parthenon Marbles that had been sliced off the monument by notorious Lord Elgin and that Greece is demanding to be returned. One of these includes the marble sculpture of the river god Ilissos, which had been loaned to Russia last year.