The Past and the Present
The World’s Columbian Exposition was held in 1893 from the beginning of May to the end of October. The casts were sent over by the Greek Government, and exhibited in the Anthropology collection. The casts captured the public’s imagination because of how exotic they were, as reliefs they were exact copies of pieces that came directly from Greece. In a time were people did not have as much mobility or connectivity across continents.
Unfortunately since then, the collection has been greatly reduced, down to about 25 pieces. It is unknown what exactly happened to the other pieces with most sources noting that they were lost to neglect, environmental issues, or inadequate storage. There has been a small cache of the casts found recently, in a storage room under the stairs of the current Wright Museum of Art.