The excavations done at Pompeii have yielded a plethora of artifacts, and The Field Museum’s own collections contain a number of fine objects from the region.  These pieces were collected by one of the Museum’s founders and greatest benefactors, Edward Ayer.

During a visit to Italy in the mid 1890s, Ayer began gathering a representative Roman collection for the new Field Columbian Museum, which later became The Field Museum.  His first purchase for the collection was made in Naples, where he bought almost 200 finely made replicas of the bronze pieces that were then being excavated at Pompeii.

Legend has it that the original bronze artifacts—including statues, implements, even pots and pans—were taken directly to the workshops of Sabatino De Angelis and Sons, a noted bronze caster.  De Angelis made a mold and a lost-wax copy of the bronzes, and the originals were then taken to their final destination, the National Museum of Naples, where they remain today.


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