Upcoming Exhibition

Broken

The Power of the Fragment in Sculpture

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    West Building, Main Floor

  • Ticketing Information

    Admission is always free and passes are not required

Discover how a fragment tells a whole story.

Journey to pivotal places and moments in history with sculptures marked by time, war, and reinvention from 2,500 BCE to today. Some 75 works tell stories about resilience, the loss and damage of cultural heritage, and the power and politics of restitution. And many rarely travel; seeing them side by side is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.  

Broken invites you to rethink what “broken” means—to see how fragments have been sources of power, resistance, and artistic inspiration for millennia. You’ll explore how humans and works of art are both powerful and fragile. You may leave seeing the past, present, and yourself a little differently.  

Organization

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.

The exhibition is curated by C. D. Dickerson III, senior curator of European and American art and head of the department of sculpture and decorative arts, and Andrew Sears, assistant curator of northern European paintings, both from the National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with Arturo Galansino, director general of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.  

Other venues

Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, September 25, 2026–January 24, 2027

Support

Leadership support for the exhibition has been provided by Laura and John Arnold.

The exhibition is also made possible through the generosity of the Buffy and William Cafritz Family Fund and the Richard C. von Hess Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the Annenberg Fund for the International Exchange of Art.
 

 

Image Credit: Egyptian, Face and Shoulder from an Anthropoid Sarcophagus, c. 332-330 BCE, greywacke, Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1516E
 

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