Italy Scores a Major Cultural Acquisition

Italy on Tuesday put on display one of the best-known examples of Etruscan painting, from a tomb that has become the latest acquisition 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 antiquities has long been kept out of the public domain. The Francois Tomb was discovered in 1857 by French archaeologist Alessandro Francois in Vulci, on land owned by the Torlonia family, reports the AP. The frescoes were detached from the necropolis in 1863 and became part of the Torlonia collection, while the tomb's contents were divided up among Francois, colleagues, and the family.

The Italian government has been trying to gain possession of the tomb since 1921, as part of its effort to bring back into the Italian public artifacts and antiquities that were acquired or looted during the boom of archaeological excavations in the 1800s and beyond. 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, which now belong in museum collections around the world and were loaned to Italy for the exhibition.

The tomb, reportedly purchased for $17 million, marks the Culture Ministry's third major acquisition this year of culturally important artworks. It paid $16 million for Antonello da Messina's "Ecce Homo" and $35 million for a rare portrait by Caravaggio depicting Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII. 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. Giuli has said the tomb is a "fundamental" part of Italian history that was now being returned to the Italian public to enjoy.