See the beautiful ancient Roman statue of Athena on display for the first time in almost 260 years

With an owl in the palm of her hand, a cloak decorated with a gorgon’s head and a warrior’s helmet on her wavy hair, Athensas depicted in a Roman statue from the first century AD, is a remarkable sight.

Now it will also be widely accessible for the first time in almost 260 years.

This beautiful marble depiction of the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare will be displayed to the public in the atrium of the 659 Wrightwood gallery in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood starting January 25.

Before the Halsted A&A Foundation acquired the statue in 2023, it was tucked away in a pink niche in Newby Hallthe country house in North Yorkshire William Weddella British landowner and politician who traveled to Rome to buy it in the mid-18th century.

“By displaying the sculpture at 659 Wrightwood, the foundation invites the public to see a work that has remained largely out of public view for nearly three centuries,” said Karen Manchester, the curator of the Halsted A&A Foundation, in An statement.

“Now scholars, students and visitors will be able to study the Athena statue up close and interpret it from many perspectives, including those of art history, restoration practices and gender studies,” she adds.

One of the most interesting features of this Athena is the 74.5 inches high the mishmash of the statue. His head came from a sculpture carved from the time of the Romans Emperor Augustus (31 BC to 14 AD). Meanwhile, his body was grafted onto a statue dating back to the reign of Claudius (41 to 54 CE), the ruler who conquered Britain, the statement said.

But this hodgepodge of marbles wasn’t a scam to get the wealthy Weddell to buy a seemingly intact statue of Athena. “Many buyers previously preferred complete pieces, even if they consisted of unrelated parts,” Manchester explains.

When older parts were not available, sculptors made new ones, such as the so-called Halsted Athena’s left arm and a section between her jaw and chest. Although these ‘pastices’ can confuse archaeologists trying to trace the origins of a work of art, Manchester says they tell complex stories about art, taste and aesthetics throughout history. Observer‘s Elisa Carollo.

The Halsted Athena emerges from the confines of Weddell’s Newby Hall at the same time that 58 pieces from the Torlonia Collection, a treasure trove of ancient sculptures, travel to North America for the first time. They will be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Myth & Marbleexhibition, which opens on March 15.

Weddell’s own trip to Rome to purchase the statue reflects the practice of Great Tours through the cities of the ancient world, popular among young British aristocrats. A painter Weddell once encountered during his Grand Tour of Rome noted that the collector had “[bought] such an amount of pictures, marbles, etc. that West Yorkshire will be amazed.”

Weddell and his fellow British travelers are said to have referred to the statue’s subject as Minervathe Roman goddess, rather than Athena, “because they learned Latin at school, not Ancient Greek, and were therefore familiar with the Latin names of gods,” Manchester tells Elena Goukassian of the Art newspaper.

But the Roman statue clearly shows the Greek goddess, with her distinctive helmet and auspicesor sash-like cloak, draped over her chest.

“When these pieces were cut, the classical style was in vogue. In other words, ancient Roman clients wanted sculptures that reflected the look of Ancient Greek and Hellenistic Greek,” Manchester adds.

Even in the first century AD, when the statue took its full form, the Romans harked back to immemorial Greece. Now the Halsted Athena’s journey to the leafy avenues and art galleries of affluent Lincoln Park adds a new chapter to its rich and complex backstory, which stretches from Greece to Rome and Yorkshire to Chicago.