Metropolitan Museum of Art announces loan agreement with Sicilian Region

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has announced a new collaboration agreement with the Region of Sicily, which includes long-term loans of ancient masterpieces to the museum and three-year loans between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museo Archeologico Regionale “Antonino Salinas” in Palermo.

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art is honored to deepen its longstanding collaboration with Italy through this new agreement, which allows us to showcase ancient treasures to the public and scholars here in New York and Palermo,” said Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“This exchange of important loans heralds a new era of collaboration between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the ’Antonino Salinas’ Archaeological Museum in Palermo. I look forward to furthering our partnership with new projects in the years to come,” said Seán Hemingway, Curator-in-Charge of the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan.

“The collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art consolidates the important role that the Salinas Museum has taken on in recent years in the area of relations between international cultural institutions,” added Caterina Greco, director of the Museo Archeologico Regionale “Antonino Salinas” in Palermo. “Relations that, in addition to the exchange of works, aim to build ’scientific communities’ inspired by criteria of authentic reciprocity.”

The Metropolitan Museum of Art currently has a selection of important works from Palermo’s “Antonino Salinas” Museum on display for the next three years. The display underscores the importance of Sicily’s ancient cultural heritage and enhances the art of the main Greek regions during the Archaic period by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On loan now are a limestone metope (c. 480-470 B.C.); a terracotta altar, or arula (first quarter of the fifth century B.C.); and a carved marble oil-lamp (early sixth century B.C.). They all come from early excavations at Selinus (today’s Selinunte) and focus attention on a significant site that has been excavated since 2006 by the New York University Institute of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Sicilian Region.

In contrast, the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has loaned four Cypriot jugs to the “Antonino Salinas” Museum. These objects, from the Cesnola collection of Cypriot art, date from around 750 to 600 B.C.

The metope on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was discovered in 1890 and once belonged to an unknown temple on the Acropolis. Carved in relief, it depicts Eos, goddess of Dawn, seducing the handsome young Kephalos. The scene captures the moment before her abduction, as is evident from the arula, also on loan. Scenes of Eos pursuing young men are widespread in Greek vase painting, but the use of the theme for architectural decoration and arulae is unique to Sicily. The terracotta arula and marble lamp were discovered in 1905 and 1903, respectively, in a rural sanctuary about half a mile west of the Acropolis of Selinus, dedicated to the goddessDemeter Malophoros. Both objects were probably used in rituals and were probably votive offerings. The marble oil lamp, with spout in the shape of a female head, may have been lit during religious rites related to the cult of Demeter. Carved from marble quarried on Greek islands, these lamps were probably made in Greece and exported across the Mediterranean.

Metropolitan Museum of Art announces loan agreement with Sicilian Region

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