Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis speaks at the inauguration of an exhibition of rare Greek antiquities at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York yesterday. The exhibition, titled ‘Athens-Sparta,’ features 289 artifacts from the two most important city-states in ancient Greece with the aim of illustrating their different social and artistic legacies. ‘This is the first time that the history of two of the most powerful cities of antiquity has been presented in a modern metropolis,’ Voulgarakis said. Highlights of the exhibition include spear points and javelin tips from the 480 BC battlefield of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans fought to the last man against overwhelming Persian forces, and a marble relief of an Athenian trireme warship in action.