PARIS.- The largest ever private collection of ancient Roman sculptures, assembled throughout the 19th century by the Torlonia princes in Rome, is being shown to the public for the first time since the mid-20th century in a series of special exhibitions. The Louvre has the privilege of hosting the Torlonia marbles for their first showing outside Italy, in the renovated summer apartments of Anne of Austria – home to the museum’s permanent collection of ancient sculpture since its creation in the late 18th century.

Displaying the Torlonia marbles alongside the French national collection sheds new light on the origin of museums and the interest in antiquity – a founding element of Western culture.

Showcasing masterpieces of ancient sculpture, the exhibition presents some truly exquisite treasures of Roman art and explore the origins of museums in Europe during the Enlightenment and the 19th century.

The Torlonia princes followed the aristocratic traditions of papal Rome, developing a passion for ancient sculpture that resulted in a magnificent collection. The Museo Torlonia, which opened in the 1870s, was designed to emulate great public institutions such as the Vatican and Capitoline museums and the Louvre.

Alessandro Torlonia’s museum closed in the mid-20th century after a slow decline, but the Torlonia marbles remained famous in Italy. Since 2020, this first-rate collection of Roman sculpture has been presented to the public once more in a series of special exhibitions. The exhibitions held in Rome and Milan, curated by Salvatore Settis of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Carlo Gasparri of the Università Federico II di Napoli, took visitors on a trip through the history of the collection.

The Paris show is intended to display the Torlonia Collection, little known in France, in a setting steeped in the history of museums of ancient sculpture. It offers an intimate archaeological and aesthetic look at the extraordinary Torlonia marbles as they engage in dialogue with the artworks in the Louvre’s own collection.

It is being held in the summer apartments of Anne of Austria and in the adjacent ‘Salle d’Auguste’ , where Roman sculpture has been displayed in the Louvre since 1798. These spaces have been completely renovated as they will later be home to a newly designed display of the Louvre’s Roman collection.

This exhibition is a major cultural event of 2024: an outstanding collection of ancient marbles, which had remained virtually unknown until very recently, presented in an exhibition space profoundly characterised by its tradition of displaying sculpture in palatial settings and of prime importance in museum history.

Featuring a selection of exceptional artworks and centred on the masterpieces from the Torlonia Collection, the exhibition focuses on the most emblematic genres of Roman sculpture with its rich and varied artistic styles. Portraits, funerary sculpture, copies of famous Greek originals, works inspired by Classical or Archaic Greek art, figures from the thiasos (procession of satyrs and maenads) and allegories make up a repertoire of images and forms that give Roman art its power. The display of sculptures from both the Museo Torlonia and the Louvre alongside each other spark a dialogue between these two ’sister’ collections about their respective histories.