We The Italians | Italian art: The Great Sale

Italian art: The Great Sale

Italian art: The Great Sale

  • WTI Magazine #91 May 14, 2017
  • 1415

Rome, 1911. The inauguration of Giuseppe Sacconi's Vittoriano is about to be accomplished, Sacconi has been dead for six years now, but the architects working with him earlier, alongside Gaetano Koch and Pio Piacentini, have completed the work. For ten years, however, Piazza Venezia, the great promenade in front of the monument, had witnessed an urban revolution with episodes that today would seem to us a bit crazy about the poor consideration of preserving and maintaining the artistic patrimony. 

The square takes its name from the 15th century palace that is on one of its long sides, wanted by Pope Paul II whose name was Pietro Barbo, Venetian: this is why both the main palace and the small palace to his right flank are named after Venice. The small palace was moved brick by brick on the southeast side of the big one, to open the total view of the Vittoriano. The square on the other side of Palazzo Venezia was enlarged, destroying the entire block that occupied it, where there was also the House of Michelangelo Buonarroti, and which housed three noble palaces, one of which, Palazzo Torlonia, was said to be the most beautiful in the city. 

Sculptors such as Canova, Throvaldsen and Tadolini alongside painters such as Tenerani, Cognetti and Podesti worked to decorate the entire home. This enormous structure, that was already a masterpiece, ended up hosting the exquisite collection of classical art from the Torlonia family, that came from property land next to the most important consular routes around Rome: paintings, sculptures, pottery, glass, ceramics, all commissioned by Giovanni Torlonia and his sons. A real Neoclassical repository. 

In 1902 it was decided to demolish the whole building. The Torlonia family, which had three more palaces in the city and a villa on the Nomentana Street, moved to these places and the City of Rome bought or alienated some of the most important works. Currently the colossal statue of "Ercole e Lica" by Canova is one of the most important attractions of the National Gallery of Modern Art. Some of the rooms of the old Torlonia palace have been reconstructed in the Palazzo Braschi Museum of Rome, exhibited together with sketches and preparatory cartons of other works belonging to the palace and taken from the studios of the artists who worked there. The rest was bought by Francesco Tancredi, an antique Neapolitan dealer who after 1903 set up a large sale, where an entire patrimony was sold, included Roman statues, carpets, frescos and even silverware were put up for auction.  

The very few records of that sale ensure that most of the works left for the United States: at the beginning of the twentieth century the US had not yet invested in the forthcoming art nouveau and deco, and they still appreciated the neoclassical objects perfect for colonial residences and National museums that were forming in the major cities. 

This article ends in a very unusual way, with respect to the others you are used to read here: it ends with an appeal and a proposal for a "treasure hunt" dedicated to the Italian Americans who are reading this. If you remember to have seen in a museum or a historic house or a foundation or any public place some objects coming from Palazzo Torlonia or more simply from Rome, please send an email to We the Italians. It will be our duty to regroup all the information you will give us, study them and compare them with the materials that are at the Palazzo Braschi Museum of Rome. You will help us trying to reconstruct the splendor of "The Most Beautiful Palace in Rome". Thanks