The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, is opening its first permanent ancient-art gallery nearly a century after John Ringling acquired around 3,300 pieces of ancient Mediterranean art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1928. The collection, which includes Cypriot limestone statues, silver jewelry, and other artifacts dating back to the Early Bronze Age, had largely remained in storage due to the 1929 stock-market crash and Ringling's death in 1936. Guest curator Joanna S. Smith and chief curator Sarah Cartwright spent a decade on conservation and research, recontextualizing the objects and tracing their origins, including the controversial excavations by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the Met's first director.
This opening matters because it establishes the Ringling Museum as a significant repository of ancient Cypriot art—the third-largest collection in North America—while addressing historical issues of provenance and archaeological ethics. By finally displaying these long-hidden works, the museum not only fulfills Ringling's original vision but also offers a nuanced narrative about how ancient art was collected and interpreted in the early 20th century, including the problematic practices of figures like Di Cesnola. The gallery represents a major institutional milestone for the Ringling and a contribution to the study of Cypriot cultural heritage.