This content was automatically translated. View the original text.
Tomba Campana: an Etruscan burial and a masterful art forgery in Veio Park
The Tomba Campana is located in the Monte Michele necropolis, in the Veio Park, just a couple of miles from Isola Farnese. It dates back to the late 6th century BC, and is among the first Etruscan tombs in the Veio area to feature paintings of human figures and animals. What makes it unique is not just the paintings, but the adventurous story behind its discovery.
A discovery and a deception
Marquis Giovanni Pietro Campana unearthed the tomb between 1842 and 1843, coordinating a dig on the properties of Prince Chigi. Campana, a tireless collector, found the tomb already looted and stripped of its objects, but to lend it more prestige he placed inside it artefacts from Orte, passing them off as original finds — creating a genuine historical forgery.
Two painted chambers beneath the tuff
The path to the tomb leads to an entrance with a long passageway carved into the tuff rock — the dromos — opening onto two chambers with lateral benches. Today, the paintings have practically disappeared from view, but from the surviving traces we know that the first chamber depicted two young horsemen flanked by animals, and panels with plant motifs. The second chamber had six large shields painted on the walls, imitating the bronze ones that were hung up in aristocratic tombs.
