Some of the Torlonia Marbles are considered essential to an understanding of Roman art. Yet they have been almost entirely hidden from view since the second world war
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe people in these scenes lived—if they lived at all—around 2,000 years ago. But they have survived, trapped in marble, alongside Roman emperors and the heroes and deities of mythology in the world’s largest private collection of classical statuary. In the 18th and 19th centuries the princely Torlonia family acquired well over 1,000 works. Some are considered essential to an understanding of Roman art.
The museum closed during the second world war and became even more impenetrable. Even a senior government official had to disguise himself as a workman to get a peek at such celebrated works as the “Girl from Vulci”, whose smile, as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa’s, was known almost entirely from photographs. In 1976 the busts, statues and sarcophaguses were moved into storage so the building could be split into flats.
“Here [the exhibits] get all the air and space they need to flourish,” says the director of the Torlonia Foundation, Carlotta Loverini Botta. She sweeps a hand around the central hall in which the busts, mostly of Roman emperors, stand on pedestals encircling the sole bronze: a life-size figure of the imperial general, Germanicus.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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