On 21 January, the History Museum of Armenia hosted a remarkable lecture entitled “Luxury and Power: At the Edge of the Achaemenid World” by Dr James Fraser, Director of Jerusalem’s W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, former Curator of the Middle East Department of the British Museum, and Curator of the 2023 International Exhibition “Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece” at the British Museum. This lecture, organised by the History Museum of Armenia as a part of an international collaboration, traced the development of distinctive styles of material culture characteristic of the Achaemenid period. These styles were copied by rulers throughout the Persian Empire and blended with local traditions to create new styles of luxury representing political prestige.