Torlonia Museum

Torlonia Museum, private archaeological museum in Rome founded in the 18th century by Giovanni Torlonia, who assembled sculptures from Roman collections, most originally found in the city of Rome. The Torlonia Museum closed in the 1970s, and its contents were placed in storage.

The museum contained about 600 items of sculpture, including a few Greek originals. In addition to the works acquired from other collections, many pieces were found during 19th-century excavations on the Torlonia family estates at Vulci, Porto, and Cerveteri. The most important sculptures were the 5th-century-bce Hestia Giustiniani, attributed to Kalamis, and a relief depicting Heracles liberating Theseus and Peirithöos, attributed to the school of Phidias and dating from the 4th century bce. There were many Roman copies of Greek works by sculptors such as Polyclitus, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. A fine portrait of Lucilla, daughter of Marcus Aurelius, was among the 100 or so Roman portrait busts from the Imperial period.

After decades in storage, several pieces from the collection were restored and shown at the Capitoline Museums in 2020–22.