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A striking bronze griffin that once adorned a seventh-century B.C. tripod cauldron from ancient Olympia is preparing to cross the Atlantic once again — this time as an honored loan rather than contraband. The exquisitely preserved piece spent 89 years outside Greece before being repatriated only last year, having been trafficked out of the country illegally.

Now it will travel back to the United States as one of more than 180 ancient artworks, drawn from 29 institutions across eleven countries, that make up the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s major new exhibition opening December 20 in New York.

Bronze Griffin

Credit: Creative Commons / Zde

Titled “Across Wine-Dark Seas: Art and Identity Beyond Ancient Greece,” the show promises to be one of the season’s most ambitious classical exhibitions.

Echoes of the Homeric Epics

While the bronze griffin carries particular symbolic weight for Greece, given its own journey of loss and return, it is far from the only object that makes this exhibition distinctive. The show centers on the period stretching from the eighth century B.C. — the era that saw the birth of the city-state, the founding of the great Panhellenic sanctuaries and the Olympic Games, and the composition of the Homeric epics — through the early fifth century B.C. It was an age in which Greek merchants, craftsmen, colonists and mercenaries ranged across the Mediterranean, returning home not only with goods but with new ideas that would leave their mark on Greek art.

Among the highlights making their American debut is the Zeus of Ugento, the prized centerpiece of the Archaeological Museum of Taranto. Crafted by local bronzeworkers of the Archaic period, the statue stands as compelling evidence of how Greek metalworking techniques spread across the Adriatic.

Bronze Griffin

Zeus of Ugento

Equally striking is a large Greek bronze weight discovered at the acropolis of Susa, in the heart of Achaemenid Persia, which testifies to the reach of Greek trade networks deep into the East. For the exhibition’s promotional image, curators chose a kylix held by the Vatican Museums, depicting Heracles crossing the sea inside the golden cup of the sun god Helios.

The exhibition, which runs through April 11, 2027, is curated by Seán Hemingway, Alexis Belis and Delphine Tonglet of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.