--- title: Are These Michelangelo's Only Surviving Bronze Statues? description: The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will unveil the art this week canonical: https://time.com/3691994/michelangelo-sculptures/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-02T15:03:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:36.842Z og:title: These Statues of Naked Men Riding Panthers May Be Michelangelo's Only Surviving Bronze Sculptures og:description: The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will unveil the art this week og:url: https://time.com/3691994/michelangelo-sculptures/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3139d49c086c27ea/69877d24524fc094bedec429/michelangelo-bronze-statue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Michelangelo Bronzes discovered by Fitzwilliam Museum and University of Cambridge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Statues of Naked Men Riding Panthers May Be Michelangelo's Only Surviving Bronze Sculptures twitter:description: The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge will unveil the art this week twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3139d49c086c27ea/69877d24524fc094bedec429/michelangelo-bronze-statue.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Statues of Naked Men Riding Panthers May Be Michelangelo's Only Surviving Bronze Sculptures > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5320fcde-5142-432b-9dcd-8803460a24de&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: U.K. Museum Believes It Has Michelangelo Sculptures [Watch (HLS stream): U.K. Museum Believes It Has Michelangelo Sculptures](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Zvmrqkvz.m3u8) (0:31)  _Published 2015-02-03. U.K. Museum believes it has disovered Michelangelo bronze sculptures that were not known before._ by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 2, 2015 3:03 PM UTC  Two bronzes allegedly created by Italian sculptor Michelangelo provided by the Fitzmuseum and University of Cambridge on Feb. 2, 2015. Two bronzes allegedly created by Italian sculptor Michelangelo provided by the Fitzmuseum and University of Cambridge on Feb. 2, 2015. Fitzwilliam Museum/EPA by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 2, 2015 3:03 PM UTC A British museum plans to unveil two sculptures this week that it believes to be Michelangelo’s only surviving bronze statues. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge [believes](http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/news/archive/article.html?5006) that the iconic artist created the bronze figures, depicting two muscular men riding panthers, directly following his completion of _David_ and prior to the Sistine Chapel. The orphan statues had been previously attributed to various sculptors until Cambridge art history professor Paul Joannides noticed a tiny detail that has been attributed to Michelangelo. Museum officials remain hesitant to definitively attribute the statues to Michelangelo. Keeper of Fitzwilliam Museum’s applied arts, Victoria Avery, told the [_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/02/michelangelo-bronzes-sculptures-fitzwilliam-museum-cambridge)that even though the pieces are clearly masterpieces, “You have to be pretty brave to even contemplate that they could be work by an artist of the magnificence and fame and importance of Michelangelo. We decided to be rather cautious, to be very careful and methodical. … Nobody wants to be shot down and to look like an idiot.” ## Transcript I have to say there are only three people in the 1500s that could possibly have done this: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci or Albrecht Dürer. 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