Ancient Roman Mosaic Returned to Italian Museum

A long-lost mosaic designed for the Ancient Roman Emperor Caligula, was unveiled in the Museum of Nemi on the 11th of March. It had been previously used as a coffee table in New York City, but recovered and now returned to its place of origin in Italy.

The mosaic was crafted in the first century and was placed in one of Emperor Caligula’s ships that stood on lake Nemi. The purpose of these ships is uncertain, however they were decadent vessels that were sunk after his death. The parts of the ships remain were recovered in 1895 by Eliseo Borghi and subsequently sold to Italian museums as well as other European museums.  

The story of this mosaic however comes after the rest of the ships were recovered in the 1930s. The Nemi museum housed the ships and whatever contents that were recovered, which included mosaic tiles, and most likely the infamous mosaic in question. During World War 2 the museum was converted into a bunker and by the end of the war, it had been burnt down with very little surviving the fire.  

The story of this mosaic seemed dead until Dario Del Bufalo‘s 2013 presentation in New York of a book on the use of red porphyry in imperial art. In this book, he showed a photograph of the missing mosaic which one of the attendees recognised as Helen Costantino Fioratti, president of L’Antiquaire and the Connoisseur’s coffee table.  

Tatenda Chitima