Restored Fayoum Portrait to Debut in Rome Exhibition

CAIRO – Egypt unveiled on Sunday a restored version of the “Tondo of the Two Brothers,” a prized second‑century painting from the renowned Fayoum mummy portrait collection.

Specialists from Rome collaborated with conservators from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir—where the collection is normally housed—for three weeks to restore the artwork, according to officials at a press conference.

The Fayoum mummy portraits were painted mainly on thin wooden panels and placed over the faces of the deceased within mummy wrappings, blending Egyptian funerary customs with broader Greco‑Roman artistic influences.

Egypt will lend a major portion of the collection to a temporary exhibition in Rome, marking the first time these artifacts will leave the country.

“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.”

Scholars note the painting’s unusual circular format and its portrayal of two figures rather than a single subject, ranking it among the most vivid surviving portraits from Roman‑era Egypt. Executed with a technique that mixes pigments with molten wax, restorers succeeded in recovering the features of the brother on the right.

Aly Abdel Halim, director general of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, said the conservation required delicate handling because both the wooden support—damaged by termites—and the painted surface were fragile.

The portraits will be showcased in an exhibition in Rome from November 2026 through May 2027.

Tomaso Radaelli, chairman of MondoMostre, the exhibition’s organizer, said the show will assemble more than 110 objects, ranging from painted panels and funerary shrouds to masks, marble portraits, plaster casts, and ancient jewelry.

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