After a long restoration, begun in 2005, the precious Profane collection in the Galleria Clementina of the Vatican museums is now once more open to the public. The original collection, inaugurated in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII, was broken up by Napoleon during the invasion of the papal states in 1798.
The present Profane Museum has been set up as it was in the time of Pope Pious VI in the original show cases designed by Luigi Valadier and contain a wealth of precious objets d'art, including ivories, cameos, glass work, bronze statuettes and medallions.
To mark the occasion, an exhibition has been set up in the nearby Sala delle Nozze Aldobrandini containing many of the pieces which have been dispersed and which have now been lent by the Louvre, the National Library of France, the Hermitage of St. Petersburg and other Roman museums and institutes. Open until the 4th January 2014, the pearl of the collection is the so-called Gonzago Cameo, originally belonging to Isabella d'Este. Eventually, it was given to Napoleon's wife Josephine, who presented it to Alexander 1 of Russia. It has been in the Hermitage ever since.
Info: Precious Antiquities- my.vatican.va
