Museo Regionale di Aidone

The Museo Regionale di Aidone, 15 km northeast of Piazza Armerina, houses the finest objects from the ancient Greek city of Morgantina. The collection's centrepiece is the Venere di Morgantina — a 5th-century BC acrolithic cult statue (made of limestone with marble face and limbs) — returned from the Getty Museum in 2011 after being looted in the 1970s.

The museum also holds other significant finds from Morgantina: Hellenistic silver treasure (the Morgantina Silver, some pieces still at American museums), terracottas, pottery, and architectural fragments. Combined with a visit to the Morgantina archaeological site itself (a short drive from Aidone), this makes a strong half-day alternative to the more famous Villa Romana.

things to do museum
A story
The Venus of Morgantina was looted from the archaeological site in the 1970s and eventually purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu for $18 million, where it was displayed as "Cult Statue of a Goddess." Italian prosecutors identified it as stolen and sued for its return; the Getty handed it back in 2011 after a decade of legal battle. The statue is now displayed in Aidone, the small town nearest the Morgantina site. The Getty's loss is Sicily's gain: the statue is spectacular, and seeing it in the context of where it was dug from the earth gives it a meaning the American museum could never provide.

Other places in Things to Do