The Toledo Museum of Art will open “Cursed! The Power of Magic in the Ancient World” on March 21, assembling more than 75 objects on loan from major international collections to examine how ancient Mediterranean cultures understood and practiced magic. The exhibition runs through July 5, 2026.

Guest curator Jeffrey Spier, a former senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum, organized the show around artifacts spanning more than 2,000 years, including Egyptian artwork, Mesopotamian sculptures, Greek and Roman relics, and Babylonian masks. Loans come from the Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Museum director Adam M. Levine called the exhibition “a rare, once-in-a-generation opportunity for Toledo to encounter nearly 75 extraordinary objects that rarely leave the collections of major museums around the world.” Spier noted strong parallels between ancient magical practice and contemporary popular interest in witchcraft and the supernatural, saying the similarities are “remarkable.” Toledo is one of a limited number of North American venues to host the show.

Source: Toledo Today