Egypt has unveiled a restored 2nd-century Fayoum mummy portrait and will lend a major part of its collection to an exhibition in Rome. The portraits will go on display from November to May 2027. The collection has never traveled abroad before.
The restored portrait
Known as the “Tondo of the Two Brothers,” the painting is kept at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the collection’s usual home. Egyptian officials unveiled the restored work at a press conference. Experts say its circular shape and depiction of two people, rather than one, make it unusual. They rank it among the most vivid surviving portraits from Roman-era Egypt.
The artist made the painting with pigments mixed into molten wax. Restorers recovered the features of the brother on the right. Aly Abdel Halim, director general of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, said the team had to work carefully because termites had damaged the wooden support and the painted surface was fragile.
Artists painted the portraits mainly on thin wooden panels. They placed them over the deceased’s faces within mummy wrappings, combining Egyptian funerary traditions with artistic influences from the wider Greco-Roman world.
Work between Egyptian and Italian teams
Specialists from Rome joined conservators from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to restore the Tondo. The work took three weeks, officials said at the press conference. Egyptian and Italian experts worked together on a painting from the museum’s collection.
“The restoration of the Tondo of the Two Brothers is an important example of what can be achieved through international cooperation in the preservation and study of cultural heritage,” said Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities. “Egypt and Italy share deep historical and cultural ties, and this project brings together Egyptian and Italian expertise to preserve an exceptional work of art for future generations.”
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir is where the collection normally stays. The planned loan will take a major part of the mummy-portrait collection outside Egypt for the first time. The restored Tondo is among the works being presented in connection with the Rome exhibition.
The exhibition in Rome
The Rome exhibition will include more than 110 objects, according to Tomaso Radaelli, chairman of MondoMostre, the exhibition’s organizer. The objects include painted panels, funerary shrouds, masks, marble portraits, plaster casts and ancient jewelry.
The Fayoum portraits will be on view from November to May 2027. The collection’s first trip abroad marks a major moment for the loan. Restorers focused on the condition of the Tondo’s wooden support and painted surface. Its circular format and image of two people set it apart. Experts also point to the recovered features of the brother on the right among the portrait’s distinguishing details.