Cartier and Myths at the Capitoline Museums

From 14 November, 2025 to 15 March, 2026, Palazzo Nuovo at the Capitoline Museums in Rome hosts the exhibition ‘Cartier & Myths at the Capitoline Museums’.

Cartier’s latest exhibition in Italy showcases iconic creations by the Maison alongside ancient objects and marble sculptures at the Capitoline Museums. Musei Capitolini, the Capitoline Museums is an art and archaeological museum complex in Rome on the Capitoline Hill. It is the oldest public museum of the world, as its origins date back to 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of ancient bronze sculptures to the people of Rome. The museum officially opened to the public in 1734. The impressive complex, with an exhibition area of 12,977 meters, includes Palazzo dei Conservatori, Villa and Palazzo Caffarelli and Palazzo Nuovo.

The creations of the Maison Cartier, mostly from the heritage Cartier Collection, are in dialogue with the sculptures from the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani – the original core of the Palazzo Nuovo museum’s collection – and with a selection of precious ancient artifacts from the Capitoline Superintendency, as well as prestigious Italian and international institutions and private collections.

In the 1970s, Cartier began to gather together pieces that had been produced in its earlier years; jewelry, timepieces and other precious accessories were thus collected for conservation, leading to the foundation of the Cartier Collection in 1983. Today, the Cartier Collection includes around 3,500 pieces dating from as early as the 1860s until as late as the 2000s.

From the mid-19th century to the present day, Cartier has studied, drawn inspiration from, and reinterpreted the aesthetic and symbolic repertoire of ancient Greece and Rome, transforming millennia-old motifs into jewels with a unique and modern character. The exhibition explores how classical antiquity has constantly inspired iconic creations, reconstructing intellectual and cultural atmospheres and evoking the evolution of the imagery linked to Greece and Rome during the 19th and 20th centuries. A particular focus is placed on the profound connection between Cartier and Italy, especially Rome.

Curated by experts including jewellery historian Bianca Cappello, the exhibition offers an immersive journey blending culture, contemporary jewellery, and mythology with audiovisual elements and unique fragrances by Cartier’s perfumer Mathilde Laurent.