Chongqing - On June 18, 2026, a major international exhibition exploring the mythical creatures that have haunted humanity's imagination across civilizations opened at the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum. Titled Monsters and Wonders: An Imaginary Journey Among Fantastical Creatures, the show is the latest installment in the museum's "Exchanges and Mutual Learning Between Chinese and Foreign Civilizations" series. The exhibition will last until October 18,2026.
Exhibition Hall Renderings. (Photo by Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum)
Co-organized by more than 20 cultural institutions from China and Italy, the exhibition brings together 235 prized artifacts in a multimedia-rich display that combines cultural relic displays, scene reconstructions, interactive installations, and educational programming.
125 Italian Treasures Make Their Chongqing Debut
The exhibition marks the first time 125 Italian artifacts have been shown in Chongqing. Highlights from Italian collections include:
The Education of Achilles – a monumental 4m × 4m tapestry from the Royal Palace of Turin, a UNESCO World Heritage site
Saint George and the Dragon – a 15th-century Renaissance sculpture from the Ancient Art Museum – Palazzo Madama, Turin
Archangel Michael Slaying the Dragon – a circa 1525 oil painting from the Castello Sforzesco Museum – Art Gallery, Milan
A Cyclops head sculpture from the 2nd century (partially restored in the 16th century), from the Royal Palace of Turin – Museum of Antiquities
A griffin-shaped table leg from the 2nd century, also from the Royal Palace of Turin
A shield bearing Medusa's head, circa 1585, from the Royal Palace of Turin – Royal Armory
An amphora depicting Hercules slaying the Hydra (530–500 BCE) and an amphora depicting the Chimera (6th century BCE), both from the National Etruscan Museum in Rome
Chinese Treasures: Reunions and Rare Displays
Several Chinese artifacts are being shown together for the first time in decades. Two Warring States period (475–221 BCE) gold-and-silver inlaid bronze rhinoceros-shaped belt hooks – excavated from the same site at Zhaohua Baolunyuan in Sichuan but held separately for nearly 70 years by the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum and the National Museum of China – are reunited in this exhibition.
Other notable Chinese exhibits include:
A Shang Dynasty bronze phoenix bird from the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Sichuan
A Xinmang period Bixie (mythical beast) with a winged figure and a bronze multi-branch lamp from Yunyang, Chongqing
An Eastern Han Bixie pottery money-tree base from Fengdu, Chongqing
A jade dragon from the Hongshan culture (Neolithic period), unearthed at the Xuanhua Zhengjiagou site in Hebei, was recently named one of China's "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries"
A Naturalist's Journey Across Continents
The exhibition is structured around a unique narrative: visitors accompany a young 17th-century naturalist on an investigative journey from Bologna, across the Mediterranean where sirens sing, through the land of the pharaohs guarded by sphinxes, and eastward into Asia. Along the way, he collects stories of dragons, sirens, centaurs, sphinxes, Tianlu, Bixie, and other fantastical beings – discovering how different civilizations have endowed these creatures with both shared and distinctly unique forms and meanings.
Exhibition Hall Renderings. (Photo by Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum)
"While stories of fantastical creatures have long captivated the imagination," the museum noted, "exhibitions centered on cultural relics that broaden the discussion across the Eurasian continent – grounded in solid historical, archaeological, and iconographic research – are exceptionally uncommon.
(Zhang Xuege, as an intern, also contributed to this article.)