Hi, it’s James Tarmy, Pursuits’ arts and culture (and other things) columnist. I tend to write a lot about contemporary art mostly because that’s where the action is: It’s rare that a 2,000-year-old statue makes headlines. But there are exceptions. This weekend, the Art Institute of Chicago will open Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, a sweeping, thematic survey of 58 objects dating from roughly the fifth century BCE to the fourth century CE. Well before the show opened, its existence made international headlines. Not only are the pieces world-class–the Torlonia Collection is widely believed to be the best private collection of Roman statues in Italy–the occasion marks the first time that the extremely secretive collection will be seen in North America. But that’s not the half of it. It’s not even the 10th of it! The aristocratic Torlonia family’s collection includes 622 objects, the majority of which have been hidden away for decades, carefully shielded from the public eye. Adding to the embarrassment of riches, the family also owns the Villa Albani Torlonia, a private, 20-acre neoclassical compound in the heart of Rome, where more than a thousand additional antiquities are on display. We went inside the laboratory where every piece in the collection is painstakingly conserved. Photographer: Federica Valabrega for Bloomberg Businessweek It all sounds kind of incredible in the true sense of the word, but I can confirm that it exists. Earlier this year I went to Rome and got a very rare glimpse of the collection in its totality. Once I’d made it into the warehouse where it’s stored—set in the back of a building in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood—everything was clean and neatly arranged, with row upon row of spectacular statues, placed either on shelves or pallets. But the relative order of the warehouse didn’t detract from just how jaw-dropping the collection was to see in its near totality. People often call objects “museum quality”; this was an actual museum, at that moment available to an audience of one. And the Villa Albani Torlonia was even crazier. Here’s a fun fact from my visit to the villa, which has basically been unaltered for a century: Many of the sculptures were put on rotating pedestals with cute little wooden handles, so that they spin for the visitor, rather than the other way around. So, I hope you can make it to the show in Chicago. If you can’t, you’ll have another chance to see it at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, where it travels next; after that, it heads to the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. Or, you know, you can read my piece about it right here. Connect with James via e-mail. |