The Torlonia Marbles are hailed as the world’s most significant private collection of ancient Roman sculptures, and they are about to travel across North America. The exhibition Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection is set to debut in spring 2025 at the Art Institute of Chicago from March 15 to June 29, 2025.
The exhibition will then move to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, from September 14, 2025, to January 25, 2026. The final stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where the exhibition will run from March 10 to July 19, 2026.
The Torlonia Marbles collection includes 620 sculptures, but only 58 will be featured in this curated exhibit. These artifacts span nine centuries of ancient Roman history, with highlights that include newly restored works. Almost half of the featured pieces were restored through a collaboration between the Torlonia Foundation and the Italian luxury brand Bvlgari. Others were restored centuries earlier.
Some highlights include the Statue of Artemis Ephesia (2nd century CE) and the Hestia Giustiniani (470 BCE). The exhibition also showcases rare female portraits from the Roman imperial era, highlighting influential women like Livia Drusilla and Julia Domna. Meanwhile, the oldest artifact, an Attic votive relief from the 5th century BCE, offers a glimpse into ancient funerary practice.
Curators Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff from the Art Institute of Chicago have designed a six-section narrative to guide visitors through the pieces. The exhibition’s themes focus heavily on portraiture and mythology, emphasizing figures like Emperor Marcus Aurelius alongside mythological deities.
The Torlonia Marbles are named after the Torlonia family, prominent financiers of the Vatican during the 18th and 19th centuries. Initially displayed in a private museum in Rome in 1875, the collection was hidden away during World War II and remained out of public view for decades.
After meticulous negotiations between the Torlonia Foundation and the Italian government, the sculptures re-emerged in 2020 at the Capitoline Museums in Rome and later at the Louvre in Paris. This North American tour is a new chapter for these antiquities where visitors can admire the skill of ancient sculptors and explore the underlying messages of identity and power.
