Lost ancient city is rediscovered in Cleveland art exhibit

CLEVELAND – Buried centuries ago by earthquakes, floods, and military plunder beneath the modern Turkish city of Antakya is the ancient metropolis of Antioch, one of the four cultural and political centers of the Roman Empire.

Some of Antioch’s most significant archaeological and artistic remains, unearthed in the 1930s, are brought together again for the first time since their discovery in the major exhibition Antioch: The Lost Ancient City, on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from March 25 through June 3.

General admission tickets for the exhibit are $5 ($4 for seniors, students, and groups). Museum members and children under 12 are admitted free.

Dated advance tickets can also be purchased by visiting the ticket center or calling 1-888-CMA-0033 or 216-421-7350, or online at www.clevelandart.org.

Central to the exhibition is a reconstructed dining room. Here pieces of a mosaic floor now owned by the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Princeton University, and the Worcester Art Museum are reunited for the first time since these institutions collaborated with the Syrian government in their excavations.

The “Antioch Chalice,” once thought to be the Holy Grail used by Jesus during the Last Supper, is a highlight among related works from 21 other European and American lenders.

The roughly 120 total objects include these and numerous other mosaics, sculpture, frescoes, glass, silver and other metalwork, pottery, coins, and weights.