Bloomberg Podcasts
@bloombergpodcasts·503K subscribers·32.4K videos
A Trove of Roman Antiquities, Hidden for Half a Century, Open Up
Posted
February 19, 2025
Views
686
Likes
15
Engagement
2.19%
February 19, 2025
686
15
2.19%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
6:33Now PlayingDespite being hailed as the greatest private collection of Roman antiquities in the world, the Torlonia Collection has been locked away for almost 70 years, shrouded in myth and mystery. But over the past few years, a small percentage of the collection has stepped back into view: Portions were first seen at museum shows in Europe, and on March 15,a new exhibition will open at the Art Institute of Chicago. Still, only a few outsiders have been allowed inside to explore the conservation laboratory and warehouse where the pieces are stored; that’s what I’m here to do. The difference between me and a phony janitor is that I actually have an invitation from the Torlonia Foundation, which is carefully opening itself up to the public. The family-supported institution manages not only the 622-piece Torlonia Collection but also the neoclassical Villa Albani Torlonia, a spectacular 20-acre compound near the Villa Borghese in the heart of Rome filled with more than 1,000 additional antique objects.
Led by Alessandro Poma Murialdo, grandson of Alessandro, the fourth Prince Torlonia, the foundation brokered a historic deal with the Italian government in 2016, which resulted in plans to exhibit the collection. Since then it’s initiated the gradual conservation and cleaning of the marbles (so called because, with a few exceptions, they were sculpted from marble), which it will send to exhibitions around the world.
“It’s very difficult to put into words how important this collection is,” says the Art Institute of Chicago’s Lisa Çakmak, who co-curated the Torlonia Collection exhibit. “You can visit the Vatican or the Capitoline museums in Rome, and then you’ll go to the Torlonia Collection, and it will basically be the same.”
--------
Get more on the Bloomberg Businessweek Podcast
Follow us on X
Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app:
Apple CarPlay
Android Auto
Visit our YouTube channels:
Bloomberg Podcasts
Bloomberg Television
Bloomberg Originals
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
