Egypt unveiled a restored version of the “Tondo of the Two Brothers,” a prized 2nd-century painting from the Fayoum portraits, and will lend a major part of its mummy-portrait collection to an exhibition in Rome. The portraits will be shown from November to May 2027. It’ll be the collection’s first trip abroad.
The restored painting belongs to a collection usually kept at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. Specialists from Rome worked with the museum’s conservators for three weeks, officials said at a press conference. Termites had damaged the wooden support, and the painted surface was fragile, so the team had to intervene carefully.
Restoring the Tondo
Experts call the painting unusual: it’s circular and depicts two people, not one. They rank it among the most vivid surviving portraits from Roman-era Egypt. The artist mixed pigments with molten wax to make the painting. Restorers recovered the features of the brother on the right.
Aly Abdel Halim, director general of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, said the damaged wooden support and fragile painted surface demanded careful conservation. Specialists from Rome joined conservators from the Egyptian Museum, where the collection is usually kept, for the restoration.
Sherif Fathy, Egypt's minister of tourism and antiquities, described the work as an example of cooperation in preserving and studying cultural heritage. “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,” he said.
“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,” Fathy said.
Fayoum portraits travel to Rome
Artists painted the Fayoum mummy portraits primarily on thin wooden panels. They placed the panels over the faces of the deceased within mummy wrappings, joining Egyptian funerary traditions with artistic influences from the wider Greco-Roman world.
The Rome exhibition will bring together more than 110 objects, according to Tomaso Radaelli, chairman of MondoMostre, the exhibition's organizer. Visitors will see painted panels, funerary shrouds, masks, marble portraits, plaster casts and ancient jewelry.
Egypt will lend a major part of its mummy-portrait collection. The exhibition is scheduled to run from November to May 2027; the collection hasn’t traveled abroad before. The restored Tondo of the Two Brothers is among the works connected to the exhibition.
International conservation work
Egyptian and Italian specialists worked together at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir. Their task centered on the Tondo. Termites had damaged its wooden support, and its painted surface needed careful conservation. Now the brother on the right has his features back.
Fathy said the collaboration brought Egyptian and Italian expertise together to preserve the painting. Radaelli said the Rome exhibition would assemble more than 110 objects, including painted panels, funerary materials, portraits, casts and jewelry. The collection’s first trip abroad will take the objects to Rome.