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One of the world s most important collections of marble busts and statues from ancient Greece and Rome is on public view in the Italian capital for the first time since World War Two. The BBC s David Willey is one of very few people who had seen them before.
The first time I saw the amazing Torlonia Marbles was more than 40 years ago. They were crammed higgledy-piggledy into a series of ill-lit strong rooms behind steel doors, and covered in dust, grime and rat droppings. It was a real shock to glimpse valuable and famous works of art in such a sorry, dirty, abandoned state.