An exhibition exploring the historical and emotional impact of damaged sculptures opened last week at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Titled *Broken: The Power of Fragments*, the show features more than 80 objects that highlight how broken artworks can hold unique aesthetic and cultural significance, sometimes surpassing their original, intact forms.
Among the notable pieces on display is a fragment of polished limestone from the 14th century BC portraying the lips and nose of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. Found near the Great Aten Temple in el-Amarna, this shard exemplifies how fragments focus attention on details often overlooked in complete sculptures. Co-curator CD Dickerson, an expert in Renaissance and Baroque art, noted that fragments compel viewers to reconsider artworks by isolating individual features, enhancing their emotional resonance.
The exhibition traces a long history of deliberate destruction of sculptures linked to political, religious, and social upheavals. One example includes a decapitated statue of a kneeling prior from Romainmôtier, Switzerland, likely damaged during the Protestant Reformation’s iconoclastic campaigns. Similarly, the surviving dismembered extremities of a former equestrian statue of King Louis XIV bear witness to the French Revolution’s rejection of monarchy. A bust of Benito Mussolini by modernist sculptor Adolfo Wildt shows a bullet hole through its forehead, marking the fall of the fascist regime.
Co-curator Andrew Sears explained that such acts of defacement were common across ancient civilizations, where images of former rulers were often destroyed during regime changes to symbolically erase their life force. Some damaged works remained in place as warnings, such as a bust of Germanicus from 19 AD that was mutilated by early Christians protesting imperial cults.
Beyond destruction tied to conflict, the exhibition investigates the intentional breaking of sculptures as a cultural practice. A section dubbed *Sculpting the Fragment* features dogū figurines—small, fired-clay statuettes from ancient Japan—many found deliberately shattered at burial sites. Scholars suggest these breaks may have acted as ritualistic acts representing endings and new beginnings, with broken pieces shared among communities. This challenges modern assumptions about ancient cultures and violence, highlighting alternative meanings ascribed to brokenness.
The theme of fragmented beauty continues through time. An Aztec statue from Tenochtitlan was purposefully decapitated during a temple reconstruction, reflecting a worldview that embraced incompletion as a truth of existence. Renaissance interest in ruins is also represented by a terracotta work attributed to Michelangelo depicting a deliberately headless and armless female figure, meant to echo the reverence for antiquities being uncovered in Rome.
Contemporary artists featured in the exhibit have also embraced damaged forms, including Louise Bourgeois’ casting of a foot in a brace and Julius von Bismarck’s collapsible equestrian statue of Otto von Bismarck. The show’s curators argue that fascination with brokenness persists in today’s culture, visible in everything from social media avatars featuring classical busts to portrayals of physically imperfect characters in film and television. This ongoing dialogue suggests that brokenness remains a powerful aesthetic and symbolic category, continuing to challenge notions of beauty and wholeness.
*Broken: The Power of Fragments* runs at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence from September 25, 2026, until January 24, 2027, before moving to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from March 13 to June 27, 2027.