Torlonia Marbles on Display: Roman Magnificence, Top Scholarship

Last month I went to Rome to see The Torlonia Marbles: Collecting Masterpieces at the Capitoline Museum. How could I not? It’s the biggest collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in private hands. Unless invited by the Torlonia family, and I’m not on the family speed dial, no one’s seen it since 1976. In terms of numbers of sculpture, depth, breadth, and quality, the Torlonia Marbles are matched, and possibly outdone, only by the public collections of the Vatican and the Campidoglio, the state museum of Roman sculpture.

“After decades of silence and shadow,” the exhibition tells us, the Torlonia Marbles are finally on view. More than 90 sculptures, almost all Roman, are showing until June 29, after which the exhibition goes to the Louvre. Because of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, the Rome iteration was delayed, then opened, closed, reopened, closed again, and, finally, in late April, opened again.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Last month I went to Rome to see The Torlonia Marbles: Collecting Masterpieces at the Capitoline Museum. How could I not? It’s the biggest collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in private hands. Unless invited by the Torlonia family, and I’m not on the family speed dial, no one’s seen it since 1976. In terms of numbers of sculpture, depth, breadth, and quality, the Torlonia Marbles are matched, and possibly outdone, only by the public collections of the Vatican and the Campidoglio, the state museum of Roman sculpture.

“After decades of silence and shadow,” the exhibition tells us, the Torlonia Marbles are finally on view. More than 90 sculptures, almost all Roman, are showing until June 29, after which the exhibition goes to the Louvre. Because of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, the Rome iteration was delayed, then opened, closed, reopened, closed again, and, finally, in late April, opened again.