Torlonia Museum

The Museo Torlonia was the antique collection of the Torlonia family in Rome.

The Torlonia family arrived in the late 18th and in the 19th century in Rome to great prosperity, especially through her ​​work as a banker. She began the tradition of the great ancient Roman noble families, build a collection of antiquities. The beginning of the collection made ​​Giovanni Torlonia for the Palazzo Torlonia along Rome's Piazza Venezia. For him, the art dealer Pietro Vitali acquired numerous pieces from older Roman collections ( Carpi, Caetani, Caesarini ). From 1800 succeeded in the acquisition of large parts of antiques from the estate of the sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. Since 1816 Torlonia acquired approximately 130 antiques from the Giustiniani collection. 1866 Alessandro Torlonia acquired the Villa Albani, together with its rich art collection.

The collection was extended by antiquities that were found on the estates of the Torlonia in the vicinity of Rome, such as by pieces from excavations on the Appian Way (Villa dei Quintili, Villa di Massenzio, Caffarella ), on the Via Latina (Roma Vecchia ), in Anzio, Cento Celle and Portus.

Alessandro Torlonia was in 1859 for the collection of the Museo Torlonia in the Palazzo Torlonia build on the Via della Lungara in Trastevere. The collection, with its approximately 620 pieces of Greek and Roman sculpture was exhibited in 77 rooms. Came here pieces from the Torlonia - owned, which were kept until then in the Palazzo Torlonia along Rome's Piazza Venezia, in the Villa Torlonia along Rome's Via Nomentana and in the Villa Albani. A catalog was made by Pietro Ercole Visconti. The collection was open to the public until the 1960/70s, when the palace rebuilt on application in homes and the collection was placed in storage. Since then led negotiations between the Italian State, the city of Rome and the family about their fate in the collection led to no result until now.

During the Second World War, several antiques from the Museo Torlonia were taken to the Villa Albani, where they are today, including the paintings of Tomba François.