Schneider said museum officials had met with Nazan Ölcerrel, the director of Turkey's Sabanci Museum, where the travelling exhibition is currently being shown, to discuss which objects will come to Hungary.
The Turkish exhibition, entitled Genghis Khan and his Heirs - The Great Mongolian Empire, includes more than 500 objects made as early as the 12th century. The paintings, gold treasures, Buddhist statutes and writings come from the collections of twenty museums in Europe and Mongolia.
In addition to Istanbul, the exhibition has already travelled to Bonn, Munich and the Austrian city of Schallaburg.
The exhibition is expected to cost HUF 120 million, an amount which will be covered by the state. It is expected to attract more than one hundred thousand visitors.
The exhibition in Budapest will be expanded with objects from the time of the Tatars, Schneider said. These objects will travel to museums around the country when the Genghis Khan exhibition closes in September.
Schneider noted that, in the framework of the European Cultural Capital 2010 programme, Turkish artifacts from Hungary would be shown at an exhibition in Istanbul, which will share the European Capital of Culture 2010 title together with the Hungarian city of Pécs and the German city of Essen. The exhibition will travel to Hungary later as well.
Genghis Khan (1162-1227), born Temüjin, united the Mongol tribes and formed the Mongol Empire in 1206. He and his successors went on to conquer many of the Mongolians' neighbours, including Persia, Korea and parts of Russia, Indonesia, India and China. In 1241, Genghis Khan's heirs invaded Poland and Hungary too. At its height, the Mongolian Empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
Today Genghis Khan is regarded as a national hero by Mongolians, who celebrated the 800th anniversary of the founding of their state in 2006.
On an official visit to Budapest in 2005, Mongolian president Natsagiyn Bagadbandi said he would take steps to see the exhibition travelled to Hungary at the request of Hungarian president Ferenc Mádl.
