BERLIN, GERMANY.- The Pergamon Museum presents Antinoos – Lover and God. This exhibition centres on a monumental, 2.37m tall statue of Antinoos, confidant and closet lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian was inconsolable after his tragic accidental death, and the young man was given godly status; a temple was built for him, and the games were consecrated to him.

The statue, which came to Berlin from Rome in the late 18th century, has been completely restored thanks to financial support from the ZDF, the Lions Club Berlin Alexanderplatz and the National Museums in Berlin.

In addition to this statue, original portraits, casts and coins, showing the face of a young man who drowned in the
Nile in 130 BC are being exhibited – for the first time since 1939.

The Antinoos cult lasted until the 4th century AD, and the exhibition shows its importance, illustrated by the magnificent portraits of Antinoos, described by Joachim Winckelmann as ‘the crown of the arts’. The Collection of Classical Antiquities presents the sculpture in a special exhibition in the North Wing of the Pergamonmuseum.