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Torlonia Collection
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pieces from the Torlonia collection Hestia Giustiniani ancient marble sculpture of Cupid and Psyche ancient marble portrait of a husband and wife ancient bronze sculpture of Germanicus ancient marble sculpture of an emperor seated on a throne group of ancient marble sculptures strigilated sarcophagus
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Torlonia Museum
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pieces from the Torlonia collection
pieces from the Torlonia collection Visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago viewing a number of portrait busts from the Torlonia collection ranging in date from the 5th century bce to the early 4th century ce during the exhibition “Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection” (2025).

Torlonia Collection

art collection
Also known as: Museo Torlonia, Torlonia Museum
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History

Torlonia Collection, an assemblage of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures that formerly made up the collection of the Torlonia Museum, a private archaeological museum in Rome founded in the 18th century by Giovanni Torlonia. With his son, Torlonia acquired pieces for the museum through the purchase of other collections or through the funding of archaeological excavations on his estates at Vulci, Porto, and Cerveteri. The museum closed in the 1970s, and its contents were placed in storage. In the 2020s a few of the pieces were restored and exhibited globally as the Torlonia Collection.

Hestia Giustiniani
Hestia GiustinianiA visitor to the Art Institute of Chicago viewing Hestia Giustiniani, a reconstructed marble statue from the 5th-century-bce during the exhibition “Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection” (2025).

The Torlonia Collection contains about 600 items of sculpture, including a few Greek originals. The most important sculptures were the 5th-century-bce Hestia Giustiniani and a relief depicting Heracles liberating Theseus and Peirithöos, attributed to the school of Phidias and dating from the 4th century bce. There were many Roman copies of Greek works by sculptors such as Polyclitus, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. A fine portrait of Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius, was among the 100 or so Roman portrait busts from the Imperial period.

After decades in storage, several pieces from the collection were restored and shown at the Capitoline Museums in Rome between 2020 and 2022. A few were also shown at the Louvre (2024), Paris; the Art Institute of Chicago (2025); and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (2025).

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko.