The MIA features an encyclopedic collection of approximately 80,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of world history.

It consists of approximately 2,500 objects spanning almost 7,000 years of Chinese history.

The Dayton Art Institute, a museum of fine arts, owns collections containing more than 20,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of art and archaeological history.

"There will be more than 7,000 objects spanning 3,000 years," said Christian Deydier, who specializes in ancient Asian artifacts and heads the dealers' syndicate that runs this fair.

He was also director of the college's museum, which claims a collection of 11,000 objects spanning the history of art.

That is illustrated afresh by the just-opened Hall of South American Peoples, a huge permanent gallery with 2,300 objects spanning 12,000 years.

The museum's collection contains more than 20,000 objects spanning 5,000 years.

Presenting some 800 objects spanning nine centuries in 22 beautifully proportioned and detailed rooms that total 24,000 square feet, these galleries are a sculpture lover's idea of heaven.

It is a visual, personal history crammed into three small rooms, the jumble of objects spanning a century.

The show also has royal portraits, court gowns, military uniforms and jewel-encrusted objects spanning three centuries of the Romanov dynasty.