Another of our intentions will be to tell the “biography” of the objects on display, and their long history. Around this fundamental subject we want to articulate a thematic story in Palazzo Altemps, starting from antiquity, going up to the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

We have thought long and hard about how to present Greek sculpture, both the originals and the Roman copies and recreations of Greek models and styles.

Will the great bronze pieces such as Boxer at Rest (330-50BC) and the Hellenistic Prince (second century BC), exhibited until now in Palazzo Massimo, find a place in Palazzo Altemps? The Renaissance building Palazzo Altemps is on this route but is not well known by tourists. For the Campo Marzio, Palazzo Altemps and Crypta Balbi, our plan is to enhance them within the great tourist itinerary that leads from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon, and from Piazza Navona to Castel Sant’Angelo and the Vatican. The idea is to make the Baths of Diocletian an island of culture. I am thinking of the Termini station area, where the Baths of Diocletian and Palazzo Massimo are located and where the Municipality of Rome and Grandi Stazioni will redevelop the Piazza dei Cinquecento. Stéphane Verger: This is a project aimed not only at museum spaces, but also linked to urban redevelopment plans. The Art Newspaper: How will the plan connect different parts of Rome? We asked the director of the National Roman Museum, Stéphane Verger, about the radical new plans. The masterplan encompasses revamping the Great Halls around the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the Baths of Diocletian, one of the largest ancient bath complexes in the world, and a new display of the Boncompagni Ludovisi 17th-century sculpture collection at the Palazzo Altemps.

The restoration of the four sites, overhauled under a government project known as “Urbs, from the city to the Roman countryside”, will take around four years, and includes the restoration of the buildings, reorganising the museum collections and opening new exhibition spaces. One of the largest museum and heritage projects in Rome, the National Roman Museum initiative, has launched after the Italian ministry of culture recently approved €71m in funding (giving €100m in total) for the cultural scheme encompassing four major sites in the capital: the Baths of Diocletian, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Palazzo Altemps and Crypta Balbi.

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