How White Elites Drained Ancient Art of Its Color

The publication of “Chroma” represents an important shift by museums toward recognizing polychromy and its entanglement with white supremacy.

How White Elites Drained Ancient Art of Its Color
Vinzenz Brinkmann, Polychromatic reconstruction of a marble capital and finial in the form of a sphinx (original Greek, Attic, c. 530 BCE) made from polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gold foil, and copper, on view in Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo Sarah E. Bond/Hyperallergic)