A 3,000-year-old gold pendant, or bulla, has been bought by the British Museum in London for £250,000. Discovered by a metal detectorist in Shropshire in 2018, the pendant is decorated with geometric motifs, including what on one side appears to be a stylised solar design. Neil Wilkin, the museum’s Bronze Age curator, said: ‘To me it is the most important object from this period, the first age of metal, that has come up in about 100 years.’ The pendant will be shown at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery from November, before being moved to the British Museum for display in 2021.
Contemporary art in Saudi Arabia continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and spirituality, and the latest exhibition by Sultan bin Fahad offers a thoughtful reflection on the relationship between memory, belief, and physical space.