Les collections sudarabiques du British Museum / The South Arabian collections in the British Museum

In Yemen, Aden’s position between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea has made it a strategic location since ancient times. Its ties with Marseille, initially driven by the coffee trade in the 18th century, were boosted by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the arrival of merchants who capitalized on the development of its port in a colonial context. This catalogue traces the history of around twenty works that these merchants donated to museums in Marseille, supplemented by exceptional loans from the Musée du Louvre, all of which bear witness to the rich civilisation that emerged in the 8th century BCE in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. Also touching on the unique trajectories of young Yemenis who became sailors out of necessity by initially being employed in the engine rooms of European ships, this book highlights the prosperity and past splendour of a country, now ravaged and divided by war. It also reveals the attachment that both French and Yemeni artists have to the country by revisiting the forms and images of its mythical history.