Wall Paintings of the François Tomb

On 1 May 1857, at Vulci, then in the north of the Papal States, the Florentine archaeologist Alessandro François was digging in the Ponte Rotto cemetery on land belonging to Prince Alessandro Torlonia. He opened a tomb cut into the soft volcanic rock, its rooms grouped around a central hall, and the walls were covered with paintings. The tomb belonged to the Saties, one of the leading families of Etruscan Vulci, and the museum dates the paintings to between 340 and 320 BC.

A few years later the prince had them cut from the walls in panels and taken to Rome. For more than a century and a half they stayed in the Torlonia family's private collection, seen only on rare occasions such as an exhibition in 2004. The Italian state first tried to buy them in 1914. It finally did so in May 2026, for 15 million euros, and since the end of June 2026 the 37 panels have been shown here, arranged as they once sat in the rooms of the tomb.

The picture shows one of them, the duel of Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus, who killed each other fighting for the throne of Thebes.