What comes to mind when you think of Nero? Probably that he was a tyrant who craved absolute power, who fiddled while Rome burned, who had his wife and mother killed, and who lived a life of debauchery. Quite a charge sheet! But what if this is all wrong? What if it was all invented to blacken Nero’s name and we’re still being duped by this fake news nearly two thousand years later? This is the provocative question posed by the British Museum show, Nero: the man behind the myth.

Evoking Rodin’s personal showcase, the Pavillon de l’Alma, this show brings together over 200 works, many of which have never been seen in public before. Centre stage are plaster casts made from Rodin’s clay models which the great sculptor then broke up, remodelled and reassembled into finished works, or stored for future use. Certainly an innovator and perhaps a modernist as Tate Modern argues, the show aims to capture a sense of Rodin’s genius in full creative flow and reminds us of his extraordinary ability to reflect the human condition.