The Met Announces Cycladic Art: The Leonard N. Stern Collection on Loan from the Hellenic Republic

Female figure, Cycladic, Early Cycladic II, ca. 2500–2400/2300 BCE. Marble. Leonard N. Stern Collection, Loan from the Hellenic Republic, Ministry of Culture

Exhibition Dates: January 25, 2024–ongoing
Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, The Robert and Renée Belfer Court, Galleries 150–151

The display of the Leonard N. Stern Collection of Cycladic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the result of a landmark 50-year partnership among the Greek Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, along with the Hellenic Ancient Cultural Institute.  The agreement, which was approved by Greek parliament in 2022 brings the 161 stunning Cycladic artifacts from the Leonard N. Stern Collection to The Met for a 25-year display starting in January 2024. It is part of an innovative solution to repatriate the works to Greece, while making them available to The Met’s global audience, thereby fostering the study and appreciation of Early Cycladic art and culture.

After the collection is on view in its entirety at the Museum for 10 years, select works will periodically travel to Greece over 15 years for display while other loans of Cycladic art will come to The Met. Following that 25-year loan period, important works of Cycladic art will continue to be loaned to The Met from Greece for an additional 25 years. Since November 2022, a selection of 15 of the most significant works from the Stern Collection have been displayed at the Museum of Cycladic Art for a year before traveling to The Met.

The Leonard N. Stern Collection comprises some 161 works made in the Cyclades primarily in the Early Bronze Age (3200 to 2000 BCE). Nearly all of the major types of Cycladic marble figurines are represented from the Late Neolithic period to the end of the Early Bronze Age, including violin shaped, Plastiras, Hybrid, Louros, Kapsala, Early Spedos, Late Spedos, Dokasthismata, Chalandriani, and Koumasa. The collection also has rare examples, such as a “Double figure” of the Early Spedos type. The objects range in size from diminutive figurines to a more than four-foot-long reclining female that is one of the few monumental Early Cycladic statues to survive. In addition to the figures of marble, there is a remarkable head carved from a fossilized sea sponge and a small pregnant figure with folded arms made from serpentinite. There are also a large number of marble vessels including beakers, bowls, collared jars (or “kandilas”), and footed cups and palettes. Other object types of diverse media include a terracotta “frying pan,” a pair of silver bracelets, and a copper alloy axe. 

The Leonard N. Stern Collection significantly enhances The Met’s ability to represent Cycladic art within the context of its encyclopedic collection. The collection of Greek and Roman art at The Met—more than 33,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 CE and beyond—includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. More than 7,500 of the department’s most important works are displayed in an acclaimed, award-winning installation in 26 galleries within The Met’s historic main building. The display in the primary galleries is augmented with many works of art on loan from institutions and private collections from around the world.

Additional Information

In 2022, Stern graciously made a major gift to The Met to support the display and study of Cycladic art, including an endowment of an archive room in the Department of Greek and Roman Art’s Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art and the endowment of a position to facilitate the care of the archives and scholarly visits. 

The fund supports the publication of all the Cycladic works in the Leonard N. Stern Collection to The Met’s website with a full scholarly description—including technical analysis, provenance, and ownership history—for each work and new color photography. The research for the online publication is being conducted by members of the Department of Greek and Roman Art with colleagues in the Department of Objects Conservation and the Department of Scientific Research and with the collaboration of colleagues from the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Cycladic Museum in Athens. A related print publication by The Met’s Department of Greek and Roman Art and made possible by Leonard N. Stern will also be made available in January 2024. 

An additional endowed fund supports adult and family educational programs around the collection, residencies for Greek scholars to study Cycladic art at The Met, and a forthcoming scholarly symposium on Cycladic art. Additional programs will continue to be developed throughout the course of this major international project and will be announced on The Met website.

Cycladic Art: The Leonard N. Stern Collection on Loan from the Hellenic Republic is organized by Seán Hemingway, The Met’s John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge, Department of Greek and Roman Art, with Alexis Belis, Assistant Curator in The Met’s Department of Greek and Roman Art.