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Masterpieces from the Torlonia Collection

The largest private collection of ancient Roman sculpture preserved to date – that gathered by the Torlonia princes throughout the 19th century in Rome – is being revealed to the public for the first time since the mid-20th century in a series of exhibitions – events.

It is at the Louvre that the Torlonia marbles are installed for their first stay outside Italy, in the restored setting of the apartments of Anne of Austria, home to the permanent collections of ancient sculpture since the end of the 18th century and the birth of the Louvre Museum. The French national collections willingly lend themselves to a fruitful dialogue with the Torlonia marbles, which questions the origins of museums and the taste for Antiquity, a founding element of Western culture.

This exhibition highlights masterpieces of ancient sculpture and invites visitors to contemplate the undisputed jewels of Roman art, but also to delve into the roots of the history of museums, in the Europe of the Enlightenment and the 19th century.

June 26 – November 11, 2024

MUSEE DU LOUVRE

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In the Seine

Objects found from prehistory to the present day

In 2020, in Clichy-la-Garenne (Paris suburbs), a team of prehistorians from Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) is carrying out a preventive excavation on a plot close to the banks, affected by a real estate program. Under four meters of modern embankments, they discover the history of the ancient bed of the Seine, dated between −85,000 and −25,000 years before our era (Paleolithic). During this period, the river bed is very wide and dotted with sandy banks. The banks are gently sloping and the sand islands allow animals and human groups to cross it in places. The climate is cold and windy, and the landscape, dominated by a steppe of tall grasses, grasses and a few rare shrubs, is roamed by large mammals: reindeer, horses, bison and woolly rhinoceroses.

The river which has shaped Paris from the first human settlements to the present day has received numerous objects that have fallen, thrown away, lost, or moved by the currents. They all bear witness to the history of the Seine, its evolution, its developments and its landscapes, but also its successive populations, their lifestyles, their beliefs or their struggles. Presented chronologically, these discoveries are also an opportunity to explain the scientific methods used in the interpretation and dating of archaeological remains and objects.

The exhibition is structured around four chronological periods and several themes chosen from archaeological discoveries linked to the Seine. Firstly, there are human settlements from prehistoric times, on the banks of the river, then in Antiquity, the time of its first developments. The medieval and modern periods reveal weapons, ex-votos and waste, while the Seine today still provides us with chance finds, such as pieces of bridges. These objects bear witness to the stories of men and women who built their daily lives with the Seine, whether Neanderthal hunters or the pious and superstitious Parisian people.

January 31, 2024 – February 1st, 2025

CRYPTE ARCHEOLOGIQUE DE L’ILE DE LA CITE

7 place Jean Paul II 75004 Paris

01 55 42 50 10

Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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