Treasures from the 6th century BC through to the Middle Ages will delight and surprise visitors to the Hermitage Rooms. Through the works on show it is possible to trace the continuity of the classical tradition in art and craft. These rare and beautiful objects tell a little-known story of the development of art and civilisation over more than a thousand years. This remarkable collection of classical Greek, Roman and Byzantine luxury artworks from the Hermitage comes to London for the first time. It includes finely decorated gold and silver, Athenian red-figure vases and exquisite cameos. Rarely out of Russia before, they show the development of art and civilisation over more than a thousand years, from the 6th century BC to the Middle Ages and they overturn familiar assumptions about the period. This exhibition challenges the conventional idea that the new Christian art of the Byzantine Empire, usually represented by icon painting, ignored the artistic styles and themes of classical Greece and Rome.