Exhibition “Masterpieces from the Torlonia Collection” in the Louvre

From June 26th to November 11th 2024, the Louvre presents an exhibition of Masterpieces from the Torlonia Collection in the newly renovated apartments of Anna of Austria. The Torolonia Collection is Rome’s most important private collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, with 620 artworks in total.

The summer apartment of Anna of Austria is an amazing setting for the exhibition.

Anna of Austria was a very important Queen of France. She was the wife of Louis XIII of France and the mother of Louis XIV, the Sun King. After the death of her husband Louis XIII, as her son Louis XIV was still a child, she became regent of France.

After 22 months of restoration, the Anna of Austria summer apartments reopen to the public as an amazing setting for the Torlonia exhibition, which will be held from June to November 2024.

Even if the apartments look homogeneous, their current aspect is due to three construction periods.

The general organization of the apartment as an enfilade (a series of rooms formally aligned with each other) and the amazing ceiling are from the 17th century, meaning from the time of Ana of Austria; meanwhile, the marble floor is from the Second Empire (1852-1870) and the red wall is from the 1930s.

The restoration focused on the amazing ceiling, which took 18 months to complete. The 17th-century decor was in a good state of conservation but quite dirty. After this restoration, you can enjoy the amazing colors of the 17th century, especially the famous and expensive lapize lazuli blue.

The masterpieces from the Torlonia Collection

In 1875, Prince Torlonia decided to create his own museum, and the collection of this famous Roman family was visible to the public for about 20 years. Then, the museum closed.

The Torlonia collection was no longer visible for more than one century.

However, in 2016, an agreement was made between the Torlonia family and the Italian state to display master pieces of the collection.

Then, restoration work started before any exhibition to the public. The restoration work started first by removing the dust accumulation on the masterpieces.

Finally, in October 2020, 92 sculptures from the collections were shown for the first time in decades in the Capitoline Museum in Rome until February 2022. Then, the collection was then presented in Milano at the Gallerie d’Italia from May to September 2022.

The exhibition of the Tolonia collections has since been an amazing success in Italia and is now due to be displayed in Europe and the USA.

The Louvre has the privilege of hosting the Torlonia Marble exhibition for its first show outside Italy

This exhibition is an amazing gathering of exceptional ancient Rome marble.

• Multiple busts of Roman Emperors
• Allegory of the Nil River in black marble.
• Stunning bicolor sculptures are made of white marble and black marble.
• The greatest masterpiece of the collection, in my opinion, is a goat from which the head has been sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
• The unic Bronze of the collection is a pedestrian sculpture of Germanicus, one of the most famous ancient Rome generals. Member of the imperial family and the father of Emperor Caligula.

Don’t miss this amazing Fantastic, which is easily accessible in the most frequented part of the Louvre

The Anna of Austria summer apartments, where the Torlonia Collection is shown, are in the Denon Wing. The Denon wing is the most crowded area of the Louvre as this is where are most of the most famous masterpieces of the museum (Victory of Samotrace, Mona Lisa, The Coronation of Napoleon, the Raft of the Medusa, Liberty Guiding the People), so this is a very good idea to come in the evening when there is usually fewer people in the Louvre to make the most of this fabulous exhibition. The Louvre is open in the evening on Wednesday and Friday only.

We don’t do specific tours of the Torlonia collection for the moment, but if you want to wander it with a guide in good condition, you can book a 2h or a 4h Louvre Evening Tour and ask your guide about.