Siren, Marc Quinn's solid gold statue of Kate Moss, sits alongside classic Greek sculptures in the British Museum's Nereid Gallery as part of Statuephilia. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Artworks by a handful of prominent contemporary sculptors will share space with ancient artifacts at the British Museum this fall.

The new show Statuephilia will see five modern works nestled among the London museum's permanent collection. The exhibit officially opens to the public on Saturday and will run through Jan. 25.

Marc Quinn was on hand at a media preview Thursday to help unveil his new work Siren, a solid gold sculpture of supermodel Kate Moss dramatically folded into a yoga position.

Siren sits in the museum's Nereid Gallery, alongside statues depicting ancient Greek heroes and heroines.

Quinn chose Moss as his subject because he wanted to "make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment," he told BBC News.

"But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to that."

Quinn, who previously depicted Moss in bronze, is perhaps best known for creating Alison Lapper Pregnant — a nude marble of the English artist born without arms.

Ron Mueck's giant self-portrait Mask II is displayed at the British Museum's Living and Dying: Wellcome Trust Gallery for the Statuephilia exhibit. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Other works featured as part of Statuephilia include:

• Cornucopia by Damien Hirst, a collection of 200 specially created skulls filling wall displays in the museum's Enlightenment Gallery.
• Case for an Angel I by Antony Gormley, in the museum's Front Hall, is a precursor to his celebrated public work Angel of the North.
• Mask II by Ron Mueck, a larger-than-life self-portrait of the artist's head — asleep — displayed in the museum's Living and Dying: Wellcome Trust Gallery.
• A new piece by Noble and Webster assembled from mummified animal parts and casting a silhouette shadow of the artists' profiles against a wall of Ancient Egyptian Galleries.

All the participating artists "prowled through the corridors and display cabinets of the British Museum in their formative years, looking at sculpture and feeling its unmatched international potency," Waldemar Januszczak, co-curator of the exhibit and art critic for the Sunday Times, said in a statement.

"The British Museum helped to make these artists what they are. Now they are seeking to return the favour," said Januszczak, who will also host The Sculpture Diaries, a TV series related to the exhibit, airing in the U.K. this fall.