Torlonia Foundation, head returned stolen in 1978 from the Hydrophora

Now theHydrophora sculpture, part of Villa Albani Torlonia’s collections, is complete again: in November 1978, the female marble head had been removed from the sculpture’s body. Now theCarabinieri - Operational Department Archaeology Section of the Cultural Heritage Protection Command has returned the missing part to the statue.

In February 2015, the Carabinieri Operational Department Cultural Heritage Protection had been informed by the Foundation that a German scholar had recognized in an art publication a marble head, part of a private collection in Zurich, that appeared to match the one removed from the statue in the park of Villa Albani Torlonia. Further investigations by the Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale, conducted in conjunction with the Swiss judiciary, showed that the work had been inherited in good faith by the wife of the collector, who had meanwhile died, and who, followingexpertise handled by the Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma of the Ministry of Culture, which ascertained that it matched the stolen work, had declared herself willing to return it. The work was repatriated in April 2022 and returned to the Torlonia Foundation, the Villa Albani - Torlonia’s co-locator, which oversaw its restoration and remounting in its original location.

“It is with satisfaction and gratitude that the Torlonia Foundation greets this important find, by the Operational Department - Archaeology Section of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage,” said Torlonia Foundation President Alessandro Poma Murialdo. “Heritage conservation is indeed the foundation that guides all our activities. The return of the head of the Hydrophora therefore acquires a symbolic value with respect to this commitment, which is also reflected in the restorations we are presenting today.”

Recently, Dr. Annamaria Carruba ’s team restored the sculptural complex of the Fountain of Neptune, made possible thanks to the contribution of the Knights of Labor, while Villa Albani Torlonia conservator Edoardo Filippo Capasso conducted, thanks to a two-year project supporting Studio Chiomenti’s conservation program, which allowed an extensive campaign of scientific investigations on the works, those of theAmphitrite and theAthlete by Stephanos a pupil of Praxiteles on which important traces of color have been found.

Also just concluded, thanks to the contribution of the Gucci fashion house and the work of the Fratelli Navarra firm, is the restoration of the Temple diruto, a fake ruin made by assembling ancient fragments, a typical model divertissement for other great Roman villas of the neoclassical period.

Image courtesy of Torlonia Foundation.

Torlonia Foundation, head returned stolen in 1978 from the Hydrophora

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