One of the four branches of the National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo is one of the most beautiful museums in Rome, housing wonderful originals and Roman copies of Greek statues, including the one considered the most moving to have reached us: the Boxer at Rest.

Of the 4 locations of the National Roman Museum – Palazzo Altemps, dedicated to the historical collections and the story of collecting, the Baths of Diocletian, with its monumental spaces, the Museum of Written Communication of the Romans and the Museum of Protohistory of the Latin Peoples, the Crypta Balbi and its archaeological area – Palazzo Massimo is the one where the masterpieces of classical Greek and Roman sculpture artistic production discovered in the city of Rome are exhibited.

Inspired by the grandiose sixteenth-century palaces, Palazzo Massimo was built between 1883 and 1887 by the Jesuit father Massimiliano Massimo, designed by Camillo Pistrucci, to house the new headquarters of the Jesuit College. In 1981 the Palace was purchased by the State to become one of the new locations of the National Roman Museum and, after a radical renovation entrusted to Costantino Dardi, it opened to the public in 1988.

We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their roots in Greece.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Among its four floors you can see some of the greatest masterpieces found during the archaeological excavations carried out in Rome starting from 1870. In the 2nd century AD Rome, in fact, dominated the Mediterranean, following the conquest of Greece, the East and southern Italy, which began a process of assimilation of Greek culture by the Romans that brought to the Capital a booty of wonderful Greek statues and the development of their own art market.

After entering, two of the first rooms that you encounter on the ground floor are dedicated to three of the most famous original Greek statues: the Niobid from the Horti Sallustiani of 400 BC which probably decorated the Temple of Apollo in Eretria, and two absolute masterpieces: the Boxer at Rest and the Hellenistic Prince.

The first floor shows the Romans’ taste for reworkings and copies of ideal sculptures such as the Discobolus of Myron, present in the two well-known reproductions of the Discobolus Lancellotti and Castel Porziano, the Sleeping Hermaphrodite, the Bathing Aphrodite and the countless works depicting deities and mythological characters.

Sculpture also becomes the expressive means of celebrating victories at the borders of the Empire, as can be seen in the monumental Portonaccio sarcophagus, discovered in 1931 near Via Tiburtina, with wonderful bas-reliefs dating back to 180 AD.

Palazzo Massimo also houses the remains of the famous Nemi Ships: two splendidly decorated Roman imperial ships attributed to the emperor Caligula, where he held sumptuous banquets, sunk at the bottom of Lake Nemi in Lazio. The Nemi Ships were recovered thanks to an important archaeological enterprise conducted from 1928 to 1932 and then set up in the Museum dedicated to them and then destroyed by a fire in 1944 whose causes are still a historical mystery.

Another masterpiece kept in Palazzo Massimo is the rare and precious ivory face, which must have belonged to a statue almost 2 meters high (the most precious of the time, none of which have reached us intact due to their fragility) of the 1st century BC, most likely Apollo or a goddess, which was found by a group of tomb raiders in 1994, near the ruins of a Roman villa from the 1st century BC in the countryside of Anguillara Sabazia, in the locality of Torre dei Venti.

The tomb raiders contacted a famous dealer, but the news also reached the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which in 2003 managed to have the find returned to the Italian Embassy in London and then transferred to Palazzo Massimo.

The second floor is entirely dedicated to the frescoes, stuccoes and mosaics found in important archaeological complexes, such as the Villa of Livia in Prima Porta, the Villa della Farnesina in Trastevere and the Villa di Termini.

A true masterpiece is the lush painted garden that decorated the underground dining room of Livia Drusilla, third wife of Emperor Augustus in her villa along the Via Flaminia. Discovered in 1863, it is an extraordinary pictorial decoration on 4 sides, the oldest example of garden painting that has reached us, dating back to 20 – 30 BC with decorations of fruit, birds and a scenic effect of wind among the trees, a touch of realism that most likely inspired freshness in the warm underground environment.

Finally, the basement offers a selection from the collections of the Medagliere of the National Roman Museum and is dedicated to the economy and use of money, revisited through the exhibition of coins, jewels, precious furnishings and documents relating to the cost of daily living.

Palazzo Massimo is among the most exciting museums in the world, where it is not uncommon to see visitors moved by the sight of its masterpieces.

The Secret

Once inside, in the corridor on the ground floor of the Museum you will come across a gem: the most beautiful Roman mosaic of a kitten found in a Roman villa on the Via Ardeatina and dating back to the beginning of the 1st century BC.

Useful Info

Museo Nazionale Romano
Palazzo Massimo
Largo di Villa Peretti 2
00185 Roma
Tel. +39 06 684851

Entrance: 8 euro, see the Museum website for tickets integrated with other locations and special events