Berlin's Olympic exhibition stirs controversy

A new exhibition on the history of the Olympic Games is set to open this summer in Berlin. But critics have raised doubts about the influence of the show's sponsor, the Emirate of Qatar. An exhibition detailing the history of the Olympic Games is set to open this summer in Berlin. The show was intended to offer a critical perspective on the Games - that is, until Qatar stepped in to finance the project. It all began with the Greeks, who gave the world the Olympic Games. They were due to lend an impressive 565 priceless objects, many of which have never previously left Greece, to the antiquity section of the show entitled "Olympia: Myth - Cult - Games." But then the Greek cultural foundation sponsoring the project ran into financial difficulties and the search was on for an alternative source of funding. The vote decided upon the Emirate of Qatar. But the manner in which the voting took place has led to heavy disagreements. A group of academics in Berlin led by professors Bernd Sösemann and Gunter Gebauer had already completed work on the conception and text for the part of the exhibition catalogue dealing with the history of the games in the modern period after 1896. In March last year, while the academics where still at work on the catalogue, the director of the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Gereon Sievernich, took a trip to the Middle East. While in Doha, Sievenich managed to persuade the head of the Olympic Museum in Qatar, Christian Wacker, to take on responsibility for the exhibition section covering the modern history of the games. "What a wonderful idea for Qatar to bring their exhibition to Berlin," Sievernich had said.