The first 21 galleries at the Ringling Museum of Art are old. Art-wise, that is. As Ringling aficionados know, those galleries are dedicated to the Old Masters, the centuries-old European painters whose work John Ringling collected during his lifetime.

It's safe to assume that when we visit the Ringling Museum we expect to see the same kinds of works that we've always seen. A Mary-and-Jesus painting here. Some pastoral scene over there. Fruit in a bowl. A David or two.

But what about the newer stuff? Modern art has always been less of a priority for Ringling than the older works, though the museum has been steadily acquiring 20th-century works ever since Chick Austin's reign as museum director in the 1940s and '50s. Ringling has important modern works, but because of its adherence to John and Mable's legacy, the museum doesn't allow the more recent stuff to see the light of day very often. The museum does well with traveling exhibitions -- the Ansel Adams/Clyde Butcher show last year brought in 86,000 visitors -- but at present, most of the museum's modern work is either in storage or on loan to other museums. With the construction of new gallery space, the Ringling Museum will likely bring in more modern/contemporary pieces.

Next February, a Thomas Chimes retrospective opens at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, featuring six pieces loaned by the Ringling Museum. Chimes is a prominent Philly artist ("arguably one of the most important artists to emerge on the Philadelphia art scene since World War II," says the Philadelphia Museum's website) who created the Ringling-owned pieces in the 1960s.

Closer to home, What Does This Mean? The Narrative Tradition opened at the Tampa Museum of Art last week, featuring Ringling-owned photographs by modern artist Barbara Kruger, among others. Florida State University has some of Ringling's photos. The St. Petersburg Museum of Art has an Arthur Dove watercolor.

"Our [modern] pieces have been out many times," says Dr. Stephen Borys, Ringling Museum's new curator. He's been on the job for only four months, though he's familiar with the museum's small-yet-significant modern collection, which includes John Chamberlain metal works, David Hockney prints and Robert Rauschenberg lithographs and photographs.

Borys explains that loaning out Ringling's modern artworks to other museums is just being neighborly. "We do our best to help out other museums," he says. "If I was doing a modern art show here, I'd ask for other museums' help."

Soon, Borys will have every reason to do a modern show. He points to the new exhibition space being constructed at the Ringling Museum as a possible venue, noting that he and his staff are looking at bringing in works by Jacob Lawrence, Grandma Moses and contemporary Cuban artists.

"None have been approved yet, but we're looking to bring them in," he says, adding that the new exhibition space "is exciting, and certainly that'll involve contemporary and modern art."

Borys calls the new space "a simple space that works well for these objects," while referring to works by Chamberlain and Louise Nevelson he'd like to see raised from the vaults. The physical space that artwork occupies is of enormous importance, Borys says, and the first 21 galleries at the Ringling Museum were built with the Old Masters in mind.

That said, Borys is in the process of reinterpreting the galleries, repainting rooms, rehanging and relabeling paintings and adding audio tours. It's part of an effort to get visitors to view the same paintings differently, especially those who may've seen the same pieces in the same space for years.

Borys acknowledges his museum's emphasis on older works, noting that, as curator, he's obliged to honor the Ringlings' legacy. The museum was set up with an emphasis on artists such as Rubens, Van Dyck and other European painters who worked in the 16th through 18th centuries. That's the museum's core emphasis, and changing that, Borys says, "would be like asking [Ringling School of Art & Design's] Selby Gallery to do Old Masters shows. You have to keep in mind what the bulk of our collection here is, and what we're known for and focused on."

What's more, modern and contemporary art galleries in Florida are mostly situated on the east coast -- a reflection of viewers' interests and of contemporary art super-show Art Basel Miami Beach's prominence. Locally, there are precious few west coast galleries specializing in works by 20th- or 21st-century masters. If there were more interest, then there might be more modern exhibitions.

Austin tried generating interest back in the '40s, when audiences were arguably less adventurous than they are today. Masterpieces of Modern Painting, unveiled in 1948, featured works by Dali, Mondrian and Miro, and was famously dismissed by the Tampa Morning Tribune with the headline, "This Is The Kind of Thing That Gives Art Bad Name." Some of those pieces reappeared in a 2004 exhibition titled Surrealism to Modernism at the Ringling Museum.

"When you have Chick Austin, who brought in modern stuff, you have to honor that as well," Borys says.

"We had the Duane Hanson and Surrealism to Modernism shows," Borys says when asked about more recent 20th-century art exhibitions. Those shows had attendance figures of 43,959 and 31,684, respectively. Not bad turnouts for a museum most noted for its older paintings.

But those exhibitions are traveling works. What about the modern art that stays at the museum, either purchased or donated pieces that may be shown once before moving to other venues, if not stored away in the museum vaults indefinitely?

A few pieces fit this description. Four David Hockney creations are in storage (a drawing, two prints and a collage), as are 11 Robert Rauschenberg mixed-media works. The Ringling vaults also contain one of John Chamberlain's iconic crushed-car-parts works, a 1982 piece titled "Added Pleasure."

Chamberlain's work in particular stands out, since a similar piece recently sold at auction for $1 million. "Laro," another recycled car part sculpture, fetched a price three to four times its estimated value. The two pieces are from different periods ("Laro" was completed 20 years before "Added Pleasure"), yet the artist, medium and aesthetic qualities are the same.

"His work doesn't come on the market very often," explains Mark Ormond, former senior curator at the Ringling Museum and current associate director at Greene Contemporary. The uncertainty of when (or if) a piece will come on the market drives up the value. In "Laro's" case, it was a simple case of a bidding war. Six collectors vied for the sculpture, which ended up with New York gallery director Andrew Fabricant.

"Added Pleasure" isn't necessarily a million-dollar sculpture sitting in the basement, though the fact that "Laro" just set a personal record for the artist is significant. That sale may've been an anomaly -- the result of overzealous art collectors engaged in a whose-pockets-are-deeper pissing contest -- yet it makes you wonder about the value of other modern work stored in Ringling's archives.

It may be just a matter of time before we'll see those works. That is, if visitors want to see them.

"It always goes back to people," Borys says. "If they want to see more of it, we should respond."