Torlonia Museum

The Museo Torlonia is the largest private collection of ancient sculpture in the world, opened in 1859 by the Roman banking and aristocratic Torlonia family in a former palazzo in Trastevere and closed to the public from 1962. Its roughly 620 marbles come from the family's own excavations on Torlonia estates in Rome and Lazio, from the Giustiniani collection and from the purchase of the Villa Albani holdings; portraits, sarcophagi and imperial reliefs dominate. After decades of legal disputes a selection of 96 pieces was finally shown again at the Musei Capitolini in 2020, and since 2024 parts of the collection are on long-term display in the Palazzo Caffarelli on the Capitoline Hill while a permanent home is still being negotiated. Visitors therefore see rotating presentations at different Roman venues rather than a single museum building.