Rome will have a new Torlonia Museum. Meanwhile, the first major exhibition of the collection of its marbles is planned for 2020

The first major exhibition of the Torlonia Marbles collection in Rome announced for 2020: it will be held from March 25, 2020 to January 10, 2021 and will display ninety-six marbles from the collection to the public.

The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces, this is the title of the exhibition, marks the first step of the agreement between MiBACT and the Torlonia Foundation signed in 2016 and is the result of the institutional agreement signed by the General Directorate for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape and the Special Superintendence of Rome with the Torlonia Foundation itself.

Curated by Salvatore Settis and Carlo Gasparri, the exhibition will be the occasion for the inauguration of the new Roma Capitale exhibition venue of the Capitoline Museums in Palazzo Caffarelli, a choice intended to focus the exhibition itinerary on the history of collecting: the Torlonia Museum at the Lungara, founded in 1875 by Prince Alessandro Torlonia, holds 620 catalogued pieces; a collection that comes from a long series of acquisitions and from movements of sculptures among the various residences of the family. The beginning of restoration work on Palazzo Caffarelli can be traced back to 1999-2000, during the course of which large sections of the archaic foundations of the Temple of Jupiter were discovered; further excavations were carried out during the 2002 archaeological campaign, but when the new wing of the Capitoline Museums called the Exedra of Marcus Aurelius was inaugurated in 2005, this part of the building along with the garden remained closed. The exhibition The Torlonia Marbles will therefore mark the reopening of these areas of the building. The sculptures on display in the exhibition are restored thanks to the contribution of Bulgari.

The Torlonia Marbles collection could be described as a collection of collections or a highly representative cross-section of the history of antiquities collecting in Rome from the 15th to the 19th century. The sculptures on display are not only remarkable examples of ancient sculpture (among them, busts, reliefs, statues, sarcophagi, and decorative elements), but also reflect the beginnings of antiquities collecting and the transition from collection to museum. The exhibition thus aims to trace the formation of the Torlonia collection, and the last of its five sections will be linked to the adjacent exedra of the bronzes and Marcus Aurelius in the Capitoline Museums, highlighting the relationship between the beginnings of private collecting of antiquities and the significance of Sixtus IV’s donation of the Lateran bronzes to the City in 1471.

The exhibition planned for March 2020 will be the first stage of an exhibition tour: in fact, agreements with important international museums are underway. Also underway is the identification of a permanent home for a new Torlonia Museum.

Source: MiBACT

Rome will have a new Torlonia Museum. Meanwhile, the first major exhibition of the collection of its marbles is planned for 2020

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