Where to buy Roman statues and busts in Rome, and what to check before you pay

The three routes, and why their prices differ

• Street stalls and kiosks. Around the main sites, fast and usually the cheapest. Often a small cast piece with no declared material and no address to go back to: fine as a memento, if you know what you are buying.
• Reproduction shops. The middle route, ours included, with museum bookshops at its official end: the piece is declared as a reproduction, its material and origin are stated, and a fixed address answers for it. The pieces you can order online from our catalogue run from €35 to €5,000; busts start at €109.
• Antiquities galleries and auction houses. A different trade: genuine ancient objects, priced on provenance and paperwork that must be shown to you first.

Ask every seller, us included, for the price and the material in writing before you compare.

Four checks before you pay

• The declared material. Expect a specific answer: bronze-effect resin, bronze and resin, stone, steel. “Marble effect” is a colour, not a material.
• The finish. A hand-applied patina varies slightly from piece to piece; turn it over, because the base and back are where a rough mould seam shows.
• The weight. Pick it up: no photograph passes this test. As a rough indication, most of our desk-size statues weigh about 1.5 kg.
• The story. Which original the piece follows, where it is today, what it depicted. Vagueness on all three is the warning sign.

Our catalogue gives a height only for some pieces, always as an approximate figure from the shop, and we would rather say so than invent the others: for any other piece, ask us for the measurement before you buy.

What is on our shelves, with the site price

Seven declared modern reproductions, all made in Italy. In our catalogue the exceptions are the Roma SPQR mosaic, declared “Made in the Vatican”, and the boxed Maximus Decimus Meridius figure, whose origin is not stated. You can buy them in store at Via Cavour 280 or online through our Etsy boutique.

• Julius Caesar bust (€109). Resin with a realistic bronze effect; Medusa breastplate and imperial eagle; about 19 cm high.
• Medusa bust, the Gorgon (€139). Resin with a refined bronze-effect finish: the gorgoneion that adorned shields and armour as a protective amulet.
• Emperor Augustus, Prima Porta (€149). Bronze-effect resin, about 29 cm high, inspired by the “Augustus from Prima Porta” of the Vatican Museums (cat. 2290), found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta and dated to the beginning of the 1st century A.D.
• Athena, goddess of wisdom (€139). Resin with bronze-style details, about 20 cm high; owl and spear. The Romans worshipped her as Minerva.
• Nike of Samothrace (€149). Resin with a bronze-effect finish, about 26 cm high; the winged Victory discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace, whose original stands at the top of the Daru staircase in the Louvre.
• Lady Justice, 75 cm (€650). Bronze and resin: Iustitia with scales, raised sword and blindfold.
• Marcus Aurelius on horseback (€750). A modern lost-wax cast bronze on a marble base, 19 × 14.5 × 9.5 cm, 1,078 g. The ancient equestrian statue, in bronze, dated 161–180 AD, is in the Capitoline Museums (inv. MC3247).

More on our page for Roman history enthusiasts and collectors and in how to care for a bronze-effect statue.

Getting here, and getting a statue home

Via Cavour 280 is a five-minute walk from the Colosseum; the nearest metro stop is Colosseo (line B), about four minutes away.

Take the piece with you from the shop (a resin bust is compact enough to carry, and we pack it for the journey before you leave the counter), or buy it online through our Etsy boutique: shipping is free within Italy (5 working days), and for other countries the cost is shown on Etsy before you pay. Orders are dispatched in 1–2 working days, and online orders can be returned within 14 days.

What we do not sell: antiquities and archaeological finds

Everything we sell is a modern reproduction. We do not sell antiquities, excavated coins or fragments: in Italy, archaeological finds from the ground belong to the State, trade in cultural goods falls under the Codice dei beni culturali (Legislative Decree 42/2004), and their export is controlled by the Ministry of Culture’s export offices.

If a seller implies a piece is ancient but cannot show you the documents that would have to exist for it, walk away. From us you get a reproduction called a reproduction, its material written down, and a receipt with our name on it.