On 16 September 2019 British Museum's Curator of Middle Eastern coins Dr Vesta Curtis conducted the talk on What Ancient Coins Can Tell Us, in Tbilisi, Georgia. Dr Vesta Curtis was invited by the British Council to attend the opening of King David the Builder’s coin exhibition on 15 September 2019.
Dr Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis is a Curator of Middle Eastern Coins at the British Museum. Studied Near Eastern Archaeology, Ancient Iranian Languages and Classical Archaeology at the University of Göttingen in Germany. She obtained a PhD from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London writing her doctoral thesis on Parthian Art. She joined the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum in 1995 and was appointed full-time Curator of Middle Eastern Coins in 2005. She has contributed to a series of major and minor exhibitions on ancient Iran both in the British Museum- including ‘The Forgotten Empire’ (2005) - as well as abroad ‘The Cyrus Cylinder’ in Tehran (2011-2012), in the US (2013) and Mumbai ( 2013-2014).
She has completed a joint collaborative project with the National Museum of Iran in Tehran on Sasanian Coins of AD 224-651, which resulted in two published volumes. Together with Professor Michael Alram in Vienna, she is the Joint Director and Co-Editor of the International Parthian Coin Project, The Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum (SNP). The aim of this multi-national research project is the publication of major museum collections of Parthian coins of 248 BC-AD 224 in London, Vienna, Tehran, Berlin, Paris and New York. She is the co-author of the forthcoming SNP Volume 2: Mithradates II (122/1 – 90 BC) to be published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences later this year.
She has published extensively on ancient Persian coins, art and culture, and she is particularly interested in religious and royal iconography.
The British Council, in partnership with the Georgian National Museum and British Museum, presents the coin with the image of King David the Builder of Georgia, the only one minted during his reign. The unique object is part of a thematic exhibition which explores the achievements of David as the most revered King of Georgia. The exhibition will continue until 15 December 2019.
King David the Builder’s coin exhibition is part of the UK/Georgia 2019: New Horizons, which aims each new audiences, broaden horizons and foster cultural exchange and the flow of ideas.