16 Palmira portraits on display in Aquileia before ISIS destruction

The Museo Archeologico di Aquileia presents 16 sculpted faces from Palmyra, Syria, alongside local Aquileian portraits, in an exhibition highlighting shared cultural and iconographic roots between the two Roman-era cities. The Palmyrene works, loaned from institutions including the Terra Sancta Museum in Jerusalem, the Museo delle Civiltà-Collezioni di Arte Orientale “Giuseppe Tucci” in Rome, and the Museo di Scultura Antica “Giovanni Barracco”, survived the 2015-2017 ISIS devastation that destroyed the Temple of Bel, Temple of Baalshamin, monumental arch, theater, tower tombs, and archaeological museum. Curators note that funerary reliefs from both cities display similar clothing, jewelry, and serial portraiture conventions reflecting a shared Greco-Roman and Eastern artistic synthesis. The exhibition is part of a broader program that previously featured treasures from the Bardo Museum in Tunis and Tehran. It accompanies a photographic series by Ezio Ciol, shot on March 29, 1996, documenting Palmyra before its destruction, under the theme "Archeologia ferita" (Wounded Archaeology). The display also prompts reflection on digital restitution possibilities for lost heritage.