ROME.- Rome has welcomed one of its most ambitious exhibitions in decades. Greece in Rome, now open at the Capitoline Museums – Villa Caffarelli through April 12, 2026, invites visitors into a sweeping narrative of cultural fusion—one that redefined identity, power and beauty across the ancient world. Bringing together 150 original Greek masterpieces, many of which have never before been displayed, the exhibition offers a rare chance to witness how Greek art lit the path for Rome’s ascent.

The show is the second chapter in the museum’s acclaimed cycle The Great Masters of Ancient Greece, following the success of Phidias. Curated by esteemed archaeologists Eugenio La Rocca and Claudio Parisi Presicce, Greece in Rome traces how Greek works—first traded, later seized, and eventually collected with fervor—became foundational to Roman artistic identity.

A Meeting of Two Civilizations

Stepping into Villa Caffarelli, visitors encounter not simply a display of artifacts, but an elegant dialogue between two worlds. The exhibition opens with more than 150 works—sculptures, reliefs, bronzes, ceramics—all of them Greek originals. Some arrive in Rome for the first time; others return after centuries of separation, reuniting fragments of cultural memory that had been scattered across Europe.

This concentration of originals is the hallmark of the exhibition. Rather than offering reproductions or Roman copies, Greece in Rome brings together masterpieces whose material presence—the grain of Pentelic marble, the shimmer of ancient bronze—reveals the precision, sensuality, and spiritual depth of Greek craftsmanship.

Placed side by side, these objects gain new life. Works once created as votive offerings or funerary tributes later became political symbols in Republican Rome or status markers in imperial villas. The exhibition invites visitors to consider this journey: how a single sculpture could shift meaning across time, geography, and social class, embodying the evolution of Roman taste.

A Three-Part Journey Through History

The exhibition is structured around the major waves through which Greek art arrived in Rome.

1. Rome Meets Greece
The opening section explores the earliest exchanges between the Greek world and the nascent Roman Republic. Already in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, Greek ceramics, metalwork, and religious motifs moved through Mediterranean trade routes. Fragments from Euboea discovered in the Sanctuary of Sant’Omobono and the aristocratic “Group 125” funerary assemblage illustrate how Romans began absorbing Greek styles long before political contact intensified.

2. Rome Conquers Greece
When Rome’s military dominance expanded into the eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd century BCE, the nature of exchange shifted dramatically. Greek art—statuary, luxury bronzes, monumental paintings—flowed into Rome as spoils of war. One highlight is the famous bronze krater dedicated by King Mithridates Eupator, recovered from waters near Nero’s villa in Anzio. This era, marked by appropriation, transformed Rome’s public and sacred spaces into showcases of Greek prestige.

3. Greece Conquers Rome
By the Imperial period, Greek art was no longer merely imported; it had become central to Roman self-representation. Greek masterpieces adorned temples, squares, libraries, and baths, reshaping the city’s urban landscape. A centerpiece of this section is the Templum Pacis, Vespasian’s monumental complex that functioned almost like the empire’s first art museum. Here, the exhibition uses multimedia projections and synchronized lighting to reconstruct how these works originally interacted with ancient architecture.

Greek Art at Home and in the Workshop

The final sections delve into private collecting and artistic production.

Greek Art in Private Spaces showcases sculptures from the luxurious horti—aristocratic garden estates dotted across the city. Exceptional reunifications include the dramatic Niobid sculptures from the Horti Sallustiani, dispersed between Rome and Copenhagen for centuries. Works from the gardens of Maecenas and the Lamian estates reveal the elite’s use of Greek art as symbols of taste and erudition.

Greek Artists in the Service of Rome reveals how Greek sculptors migrated to Rome, founding workshops that blended Greek tradition with Roman demands. Neo-Attic ateliers in Delos and Athens produced refined decorative pieces, such as the monumental rhyton-shaped fountain signed by Pontios, reinterpreting classical motifs for Roman contexts.

A Modern Lens on the Ancient World

What sets Greece in Rome apart is not only the breathtaking objects on display but the exhibition’s ability to immerse visitors in the worlds these works once inhabited. Digital reconstructions, atmospheric soundscapes, and careful lighting design recreate ancient sanctuaries, porticoes, and elite residences, bridging the gap between archaeological scholarship and contemporary storytelling.

Loaned from institutions across Italy and from major museums worldwide—the Met, the Uffizi, the MFA Boston, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, the British Museum—the exhibition is an unprecedented international collaboration. Private collections, including the Fondazione Sorgente Group and the Al Thani Collection, add further rarity.

A Cultural Milestone for Rome

Ultimately, Greece in Rome is more than an exhibition. It is a reminder of how cultures borrow, transform, and elevate one another. It shows that Rome’s identity—its aesthetics, its symbolism, even its architecture—was forged in deep dialogue with Greece. In bringing these masterpieces together again, the Capitoline Museums illuminate the roots of Western visual culture and invite visitors to rediscover the ancient world with renewed wonder.