December 7, 2009 -- The largest and most comprehensive collection of exotic Arabian equine art and artifacts ever assembled will be on view to group tours when A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse is presented from May 29-October 15, 2010 in the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse in Lexington. The exhibition, presented by the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation, has been named one of the American Bus Association's (ABA) Top 100 Events for 2010. It will feature 410 artifacts and works of art from 26 museums and private lenders including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford University, Ashmolean Museum, Egyptian Museum of Cairo, Carnegie Museum of Art, National Museum of Warsaw, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and American Museum of Natural History.

Among the priceless works of art and artifacts in A Gift from the Desert are the Standard of Ur (circa 2,600 BCE), the first depiction of equine driving, and the Kikkuli tablet, the world’s earliest known treatise on horse care and training from the Hittite civilization. Other artifacts include the robes and dagger used by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in his famous march across the desert, a collection of Orientalist paintings depicting Near Eastern life and equestrian culture, early depictions of the earliest Arabian-type horses from Egypt’s New Kingdom, and a selection of saddles, tack, armor and arms (many bejeweled) from the Ottoman Empire. Expected to draw 500,000 visitors, the exhibition will be on display during the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the park – the largest sporting event in the United States in 2010.

A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse will be the first major exhibition to explore the impact of the horse on Near Eastern civilization, with particular emphasis on the Arabian horse, the first breed. It will concentrate on the Near East, covering the modern states of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, India and Iran. It will begin with the arrival of the first horses in the Near East and culminate in the spread of the Arabian breed throughout the world and the renaissance of purebred breeding in its ancestral homelands today.

For group tour information, contact Ali Mihankhah, 859-259-4225 or ali.mihankhah@ky.gov

A number of group tour opportunities are available including separate or combined tickets for the exhibition and the Kentucky Horse Park, plus VIP evening tours with dinner. (859-259-4232, Kentucky Horse Park)