The Torlonia Collection is the most important private collection of Roman marble sculptures in the world. Comprising more than six hundred works and a wide range of sculptural types and subjects, its holdings rival those of major institutions, including the Capitoline and Vatican Museums. This veritable “collection of collections” was formed in the nineteenth century by Prince Giovanni Torlonia (1754–1829) and his son Prince Alessandro (1800–1886), primarily through the purchase of several groups of ancient sculpture assembled in early modern Rome, as well as through extensive archaeological excavations on Torlonia estates. In 1876, Alessandro opened the Museo Torlonia, a pioneering private museum in Rome dedicated to classical antiquity, where a significant portion of the collection was made accessible to scholars and select visitors. In the wake of World War II, Alessandro Torlonia’s museum closed, and the collection went unseen for generations.
Now, for the first time, this exhibition brings to North America fifty-eight masterpieces from Italy’s storied Torlonia Collection, from large-scale figures of gods and goddesses to portraits of emperors and magnificent funerary monuments. Half of these sculptures, which range in date from the 5th century BC to the early 4th century AD, have been newly conserved and studied specifically for this exhibition, offering a rare opportunity to experience these exceptional artworks and explore the fascinating stories they reveal about both their ancient pasts and their modern afterlives.
