The Art Newspaper

New home for antiquities at Art Institute of Chicago

Displays for Greek, Roman and Byzantine art mark final phase of reinstallation after construction of Modern Wing

By Pac Pobric. Web only
Published online: 09 November 2012

Antiquities get their close-up in Chicago: Portrait Bust of a Woman (detail), Roman, Antonine Period, 140-150 AD (Photo: Erika Dufour)

The Art Institute of Chicago opens its renovated Greek, Roman and Byzantine Galleries on 11 November with the inaugural exhibition “Of Gods and Glamour”.

The redesign, completed by the New York and Los Angeles-based architectural firm Why, was funded by a $10m gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation, with some of the money going towards acquisitions and educational programs. “These new galleries represent the last phase of the complete reinstallation of the museum, begun in 2008 and occasioned by the construction of the Modern Wing,” says the director, Douglas Druick, in a press release.

“Of Gods and Glamour” includes more than 550 works of art, 150 of which are loans. A complementary exhibit, “Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum”, also opens on 11 November and will be on view in McKlinlock Court until 25 August 2013. It includes works such as the sixth-century Reliquary of St Menas. Many of the other pieces have never been shown in the US before.

Bust of Silenus (detail), Roman, first century BC to first century AD (Photo: Erika Dufour)