Highlights: Napoleon on the Nile -- Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt by Staff from Antiques & Fine Art magazine

Described by the New York Times as "an engrossing exhibition" and included by the Village Voice in its "Best in Show" section, Napoleon on the Nile has proven so popular its end-date has been extended. The multi-volume Description de l'Egypte remains the single most important European scholarly study of ancient and modern Egypt. Initiated under the patronage of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte as he invaded Egypt in 1798, and completed in 1829 during the reign of King Charles X, the Description was one of the most significant consequences of the France's short military occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Its large, magnificent plate illustrations influenced the course of Western fine and decorative arts for two centuries and through "Egyptomania" and "Orientalism" and also provided the foundation for the modern discipline of Egyptology. The private collection of Professor Robert Brier (C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University), Egyptologist and host of the TLC series, The Great Egyptians, contains both bound and unbound versions of the Description and these plates form the core of the exhibition. In addition, Dahesh Museum curator Lisa Small selected letters, documents, medals, decorative artworks, maps, and prints from the Brier collection to complement the plates.