In brief
Nine ancient artefacts from Apollonia Pontica are traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for a four‑month exhibition. The collection, which includes a Cybele relief and the oldest marble kouros in Bulgaria, highlights the city’s role in cultural exchanges around the Black Sea. The show features more than 180 pieces from the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region, illustrating shared histories across continents.
Nine archaeological artefacts from ancient Apollonia Pontica will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from December 20, 2026 to April 11, 2027, as part of the exhibition “Across Wine‑Dark Seas: Art and Identity beyond Ancient Greece.”
The show brings together over 180 works of art and archaeological items from the Eastern Mediterranean, Black Sea, western Asia Minor, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and the Apennine Peninsula, and it will run for four months. It includes pieces from major museum collections such as the Louvre, the Vatican Museums and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The nine items come from two Bulgarian institutions. Seven belong to the Municipal Cultural Institute Museum Centre in the Black Sea town of Sozopol, while two are part of the Regional History Museum in Burgas. “The Black Sea is represented in the exhibition exclusively through Apollonia Pontica, with artefacts from the collections of the museums in Burgas and Sozopol,” explained Sozopol Museum Director Dimitar Nedev to BTA.
The Burgas‐origin artefacts include a relief of the goddess Cybele dated to the first half of the 5th century BC and found in the waters of Sozopol Harbour, and a marble kouros statue of a young man, from the 6th to early 5th century BC, discovered on Atia Peninsula. It is the oldest marble statue in Bulgarian museums.
The two Burgas items were shipped to New York on November 12; the Regional History Museum team said the preparations took three days. Specialists packed the stones, placed them in custom crates, and prepared ramps for loading onto a truck.
The seven Sozopol artefacts, which include ceramic vessels linked to ancient Apollonian religious practices, have yet to be sent to the United States.
By focusing solely on Apollonia Pontica, the exhibition underscores the Black Sea region’s role in ancient cultural contacts between the Greek world and peoples along its western coast. “It is a meaningful recognition of the region’s archaeological heritage,” said Nedev.
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be able to experience the heritage of one of the Black Sea’s most important ancient cities and see how it connected to the wider Mediterranean world.
