The Hall of the Emperors at the Capitoline Museums in Rome has been restored to its former glory, sources said Wednesday.
[Credit: ANSA]
"The environment is once again the one collectors and artists came to study in order to understand the harmony of statues from Antiquity," Rome culture and museums chief Claudio Parisi Presicce said in presenting the restoration alongside Mayor Virginia Raggi and other officials.
The hall houses portraits of 67 ancient Roman emperors or their family members purchased in 1733 by Pope Clement XII as the founding core of the Capitoline Museums, which were inaugurated the following year.
Raggi noted that they were "the first museum in the world", bringing art to the public and not just collectors.
The restoration has returned the walls to their original golden and pale blue hues, thus leading to a more realistic vision of what the hall might have looked like in the 1700s.
Source: ANSA [July 20, 2016]