The National Etruscan Museum in Rome is undertaking a public restoration of the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, a 6th-century B.C.E. Etruscan terracotta tomb that was discovered in Cerveteri in 1881 and reassembled from 400 fragments by the museum's founder, Felice Barnabei. The open restoration will begin with the couple's legs, using digital technologies, and aims to highlight the work of art professionals while creating a long-term conservation plan for the masterpiece.
The restoration matters because it reflects a growing trend among cultural institutions to make conservation visible to the public, transforming museums into living spaces where the care of artifacts becomes part of the visitor experience. It also offers a rare opportunity to deepen scholarly understanding of Etruscan civilization, which left no written histories, and to ensure the preservation of one of antiquity's most iconic and tender funerary artworks for future generations.