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{{infobox museum
|name= Torlonia Museum
|native_name= Museo Torlonia
|native_name_lang = ita
|image=     
|established= {{Start date|1859}}
|dissolved = {{End date|1976}}
|location= Rome, Italy
|type = Sculpture collection
|collection_size = 620
|founder = Alessandro Torlonia
|director= 
|website= 
}}

[[Image:Hestia-meyers.png|thumb|upright|Statue of [[Hestia Giustiniani]] (5th century BC), part of the collection]]

The '''Torlonia Museum''' ({{langx|it|Museo Torlonia}}; not identical with the [[Villa Torlonia (Rome)|Villa Torlonia]] on the [[Via Nomentana]]<ref>[http://www.ostia-antica.org/portus/intro.htm jthb (30 April 2009). Introduction to Portus.] ''www.ostia-antica.org'', maintained by ''Internet Group Ostia'' (retrieved 28 February 2011)</ref>) was a [[museum]] in [[Rome]], which housed the [[Torlonia Collection]] (''Collezione Torlonia'') of ancient sculptures.

==History==
The collection of 620 [[marble]] and [[alabaster]] statues and [[Sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] dating to the [[Roman Empire]] period<ref name="store">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1490591/Roman-statues-go-on-show-after-40-years-in-store.html Bruce Johnston (23 May, 2005). Roman statues go on show after 40 years in store.] ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' (retrieved February 28, 2011)</ref> has been described as the "most important private museum of sculpture in the world" by Italian art critic [[Federico Zeri]] and, according to [[The Daily Telegraph]], has been "said to rival [the ancient sculptures] of the [[Vatican Museums|Vatican]]."<ref name="back"/> The [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] considers the most significant of the works a [[relief]] of [[Heracles]] freeing [[Theseus]] and [[Peirithoos]] (4th century BC, attributed to the school of [[Phidias]]) and a sculpture of "[[Hestia Giustiniani]]" (5th century BC, attributed to [[Kalamis]]).<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/599931/Torlonia-Museum "Torlonia Museum." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011.] (retrieved 28 February 2011)</ref> Overall, the collection contains 20 statues of [[Hercules]], about 30 of [[Venus]], and 100 of the Caesars and their families,<ref name="back">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1470839/Roman-statues-back-on-show.html Bruce Johnston (2 September, 2004). Roman statues back on show.] ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' (retrieved 28 February 2011)</ref> among them a [[bust (sculpture)|bust]] of [[Julius Caesar]]. Besides, it includes sculptures of the gods from [[Roman mythology]] and Roman copies of [[Art in ancient Greece|Greek statues]].<ref name="store"/>

According to the newspaper [[The Daily Telegraph]], the namesake of the collection and then the museum, the Roman [[House of Torlonia|Torlonia family]], received ownership of the collection around 1800 or in the early 19th century. The previous owners, the [[House of Giustiniani|Giustiniani]] family, had taken out a loan from the Torlonia dynasty and secured it with the collection, but then defaulted on paying back the loan.<ref name="store"/> (According to earlier information by the same newspaper, however, Prince [[Giovanni Torlonia]] himself was the founder of the collection when, in 1810, "he bought some works and unearthed others on his land in [[Portus]]".<ref name="back"/>)

Alessandro Torlonia, heir to Giovanni, opened the collection to visitors in their family palace on [[Via della Lungara]], close to the [[Tiber River]], in 1893. In the 1960s, the museum was dismantled and the 77-room palace was illegally converted into a 93-unit apartment building.<ref name="back"/> The collection was put into storage and has not been publicly displayed. In May 2005 the government attempted to buy the collection for 1.2 billion but the offer was declined.

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
{{commons category|Torlonia Collection}}
* Pietro Ercole Visconti: ''Catalogo del Museo Torlonia di Sculture Antiche.'' Roma 1876. 2.Edizione 1881 3.Edizione 1883 ([https://archive.org/stream/catalogodelmuse01viscgoog#page/n5/mode/2up Scanned text - the website archive.org]) {{in lang|it}}
* Carlo Lodovico Visconti: ''I monumenti del Museo Torlonia riprodotti con la fototipia. Testo, I'' Roma 1885 ([http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Visconti1885Vol1 Scanned text - Arachne online database of German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Cologne.]) {{in lang|it}}
* Carlo Lodovico Visconti: ''I monumenti del Museo Torlonia riprodotti con la fototipia. Tavole, II'' Roma 1885 ([http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Visconti1885Vol2 Digitized photographs - Arachne online database of German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Cologne.]) {{in lang|it}}
* Elisabetta Povoledo: "[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/arts/design/torlonia-collection-rome-statues.html A Storied Collection of Ancient Sculpture Will Finally See the Light]", ''The New York Times'', 28 October 2019.

{{coord missing|Italy}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Museums in Rome]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Rome]]
[[Category:Archaeological museums in Lazio]]
[[Category:Museums of ancient Rome in Italy]]
[[Category:Museums established in 1859]]
[[Category:Collections of classical sculpture]]