In brief
The Metropolitan Museum of Art will exhibit nine pieces from ancient Apollonia Pontica, including a Cybele relief and the oldest marble kouros in a Bulgarian collection, as part of “Across Wine‑Dark Seas.” The display, opening December 20, 2026, brings together artifacts from nine countries and invites questions about the remaining shipment and its impact on regional cultural identity.
On December 20, 2026, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open a new exhibition, Across Wine‑Dark Seas: Art and Identity beyond Ancient Greece, featuring nine archaeological artefacts from the ancient Greek colony of Apollonia Pontica, now the town of Sozopol, Bulgaria.
The nine pieces, sourced from the Municipal Cultural Institute Museum Centre in Sozopol and the Regional History Museum in Burgas, will be on display through April 11, 2027. The show will assemble over 180 works from the Eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, western Asia Minor, North Africa, Egypt, Sicily, Sardinia and the Apennine Peninsula, making the Black Sea presence in the exhibition exclusively represented by Apollonia Pontica artefacts.
Two of the items come from Burgas’s collection. One is a relief depicting the goddess Cybele, dated to the first half of the 5th century BC and discovered in the waters of Sozopol Harbour. The second is a marble kouros of a young man, dating from the 6th to the early 5th century BC, found on Atia Peninsula. It is the oldest marble statue currently held in a Bulgarian museum.
Sozopol Museum Director Dimitar Nedev told BTA that the inclusion of the Black Sea artefacts would be a significant recognition of the region’s archaeological heritage and of the ancient city’s role in cultural contacts between the Greek world and the peoples along the western Black Sea coast.
“The Black Sea is represented in the exhibition exclusively through Apollonia Pontica, with artefacts from the collections of the museums in Burgas and Sozopol,” Nedev said.
The two Burgas artefacts were dispatched to New York on November 12, after a three‑day preparation process in which a specialist team packed the stone sculptures in specially designed transport crates and built ramps for loading them onto a truck.
The remaining seven artefacts, all held in Sozopol, have not yet been sent to the United States. They include seven ceramic vessels associated with the religious practices of ancient Apollonians, plus other objects that have yet to be announced in detail.
The exhibition will feature items from major global collections, including those of the Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto, the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion in Crete, the Archaeological Museum of Samos, the Archaeological Museum of Cordoba and the Albacete Museum in Spain, illustrating the broad cross‑cultural connections of the Grecian world.
Questions remain about the transportation logistics for the remaining items, the way they will be displayed alongside the Icelandic collection, and how the exhibition will engage audiences with the comparatively less‑known Black Sea region. The Metropolitan Museum’s curatorial team has yet to detail how the Balkan heritage will be contextualised relative to the wider array of ancient Mediterranean artefacts.
As the exhibition draws near, scholars and local communities alike anticipate a deeper understanding of Apollonia Pontica and its place in a world of ancient maritime trade, awaiting the final roll‑out of its nine souvenirs of history.
