Two centuries before our era, the region of Campania became the favorite place of Roman emperors-from Julius Caesar to Nero- and aristocrats to relax, due to the beauty of the Bay of Naples. Pompeii, Herculaneum and nearby villages represented leisure for some and work for others, like artists.

A hundred pieces, which reveal the luxury and sophistication that this Mediterranean zone reached before the Vesuvius erupted in 79 of the Common Era, arrive to Mexico as part of the exhibition “Pompeya y una Villa Romana: Arte y Cultura alrededor de la Bahia de Napoles” (Pompeii and the Roman Villa. Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples), to be opened at the National Museum of Anthropology in November 2009.

As part of the cultural exchange program between Mexico and Italy, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) sponsors this international exhibition within its cycle “Great Civilizations”. In return, “Teotihuacan, City of Gods” will be displayed at the Palace of Exhibitions in Rome in 2010.

“Pompeii and the Roman Villa” was presented before at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, United States, with an important affluence of visitors. The exhibition was organized by both museums with the support of Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Campania and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompeii.

Most objects are part of the Naples National Archaeological Museum collection, while others come from the heaps of Archaeological Museum of Campi Flegrei, Pompeii Excavations Office, as well as Oplontis, in Torre Annunziata. A sculpture of young Hercules exhibited is part of the collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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