After eight years of work, the Villa Giulia Etruscan Museum of Rome has opened 22 new rooms displaying some of the greatest treasures of the Etruscan civilization. Many of the exhibits had been illegally exported from Italy since 1970 and sold to foreign museums. Their restitution involved a long and energetic battle on the part of the Italian government and include unique works of art, such as the Krater of Euphronio and a kylix, or plate, painted with scenes of the Trojan war, returned by the Getty and Metropolitan Museums of the USA.
The new displays feature the reconstructed Tomb of the Chariot in bronze from Vulci, the bas relief with Zeus, Athena and other divinities from the temple of Pyrgi and explanations on the Etruscan alphabet, which has now been deciphered.
The Etruscan collection is now spread over 40 rooms in the splendid 16 th century Villa Giulia, in the Villa Borghese park.
