Italy displays paintings from an ancient Etruscan tomb, its latest
cultural acquisition
[July 01, 2026]
By NICOLE WINFIELD
ROME (AP) — Italy on Tuesday put on display one of the best known
examples of Etruscan painting, panels from a tomb that it acquired for
15 million euros ($17 million) in the Culture Ministry’s buying spree of
big-ticket pieces of the country's cultural heritage.
The ministry announced in May that it had acquired the fresco panels,
dating from the 4th century, from members of the Torlonia family, one of
Italy’s ancient noble families whose vast collection of antiquity has
long been kept out of the public domain.
The Francois Tomb was discovered in 1857 by the French archaeologist
Alessandro Francois in Vulci, on land owned by the Torlonia family. The
frescoes were detached from the necropolis in 1863 and became part of
the Torlonia private collection, while the contents of the tomb were
divided up among Francois, colleagues and the family.
The Italian government has been trying to get possession of the tomb
since 1921, as part of its effort to bring back into the Italian public
patrimony artifacts and antiquities that were acquired or looted during
the boom of archaeological excavations in the 1800s and beyond.
The Etruscan Civilization occupied swaths of what is today central Italy
for centuries was a major Mediterranean trading power. Much of it was
destroyed by the subsequent Roman Empire.
The tomb is opening to the public Wednesday at Rome’s Villa Giulia
National Etruscan Museum. Alongside the fresco panels are jewels,
Etruscan vases and other items that were discovered inside the tomb, now
belong in museum collections around the world and were loaned to Italy
for the exhibition.
The tomb marks the Culture Ministry’s third major acquisition this year
of expensive, culturally important artworks. It paid $14.9 million for
Antonello da Messina’s “ Ecce Homo” and around $35 million for a rare
portrait by Caravaggio depicting Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban
VIII.
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Reporters visit the frescoes, dating from 330–310 B.C., exhibited in
the reconstruction of the François Tomb, an Etruscan tomb, at the
Villa Giulia Etruscan Museum in Rome, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP
Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
 The funds have come from the
ministry’s annual budget for acquisitions, but Culture Minister
Alessandro Giuli has prioritized buying fewer, bigger-ticket items
of cultural importance rather than smaller, lesser artworks and
antiquities, officials said.
“In recent months, the Ministry of Culture has invested a great deal
of money in acquiring masterpieces," said Massimo Osanna, director
general of Italian museums in the ministry.
Giuli has said the tomb is a “fundamental” part of Italian history
that was now being returned to the Italian public to enjoy.
Luana Toniolo, director of the Villa Giulia museum, called the tomb
one of the greatest masterpieces of antiquity and Etruscan painting,
and one of the best preserved. Among other things, the paintings
depict the sacrifice of Trojan prisoners and battles of Etruscan
heroes.
“It is a vast book of stone and color that tells us about families,
warriors, gods and heroes — both Etruscans and Greeks — and recounts
Greek myths reinterpreted through an Etruscan lens," she said.
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Associated Press journalist Silvia Stellacci in Rome contributed.
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