The frescoes of Boscoreale are back in Mariemont

These masterpieces of ancient Roman painting come from a luxury country villa discovered in Boscoreale, a few steps from Pompeii and the Vesuvius. They date back to the middle of the 1st century BC.

The excavations of this Roman villa revealed exceptional wall paintings which are now dispersed in several of the world’s greatest museums such as the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The panels kept at Mariemont are among the most awe-inspiring and were recognized in 2020 as a « Classified Treasure of the French Community of Belgium».

These frescoes were originally acquired by Raoul Warocqué in 1903 and have recently undergone a spectacular restoration, carried out by the Centre d’Étude des Peintures Murales Romaines of the City of Soissons. Dozens of experts were mobilized for this formidable project financed by the InBev-Baillet Latour Fund, with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation.

The restored paintings are now installed in a majestic yet pared-down pavilion conceived by the architects of Studio SNCDA. Its purposefully contemporary design reinterprets the spaces of the Roman villa, thanks to a subtle dialogue between perspectives and light.