https://ancientrome.org/tags/museums/ Recent content in Museums on Ancient Rome Hugo en-us Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/roman-sarcophagi-spent-more-time-as-fountains-and-church-tombs-than-as-graves/ Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://ancientrome.org/roman-sarcophagi-spent-more-time-as-fountains-and-church-tombs-than-as-graves/ <p>A carved marble box sits in the middle of the antiquities hall at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, roped off, lit from above, with a bust on a pedestal keeping it company. Horses rear across the front panel. Figures fall under them. It reads as sculpture, which is exactly what it isn&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s a coffin, and for most of the seventeen or eighteen centuries since somebody paid for it, it was not treated as art.</p>