Pamplona (EFE).- Pompelo’s Togado, one of the only two bronze togada statues from Roman times found in the Iberian Peninsula, is closer to “going home”, to Pamplona. And it is so after the principle of agreement that the Foral Government has reached with its owner, an American citizen, for its acquisition and permanence in the stable collection of the Museum of Navarra.
That principle of agreement has been reached in the amount of 620,000 dollars (approximately 575,000 euros), as detailed in a press conference by the Minister of Culture, Rebeca Esnaola. She has recognized that the purchase, which has a favorable report from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, has been a “complex and laborious” process.
Accompanied by the Director General of Culture – Institución Príncipe de Viana, Ignacio Apezteguía, and the Director of the Museum Service, Susana Irigaray, she thanked “the generosity and availability of the owner, a collector of North American art.” He agreed to deposit the piece in the Museum for two years without receiving compensation, and has finally chosen to meet his offer “understanding that this heritage should return to his house.”
El Togado, for the enjoyment of all citizens
The acquisition of the Togado will allow its “enjoyment by all citizens and will enable specialists to study its characteristics; which will undoubtedly help to a better understanding and knowledge of our past ”, he pointed out.
For his part, the General Director of Culture commented that “it is very difficult to determine a market price for a piece of these characteristics, almost unique in its kind. For this reason, the prices that the Togado has had in successive transactions carried out between the 1980s and the present have been analyzed and studied”.
Discovered in Pamplona in 1895, this unique statue had its whereabouts unknown until 2015, when news of its location was found in a private North American collection. In 2022, the Government signed a temporary deposit agreement with the owner for two years without financial consideration. El Robado arrived at the Museum of Navarra on May 12 of that year, from the United States, and was exhibited until June 17.
A “unique” piece
It is a “singular” piece, one of the only two robed bronze statues from Roman times found in the Iberian Peninsula. The other, the “Togado de Periate” is preserved in the Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Granada. The one in Pamplona is also one of the 13 bronze robes discovered throughout the ancient territory of the Roman Empire.
Added to this rarity, in the case of Pompelo’s Robe, are a series of iconographic peculiarities, still to be studied and that could provide data for the identification of the character represented and its meaning, Irigaray pointed out. She has remarked that, in addition to the interest of the piece as a work of art, the history of its recovery constitutes a case to be referenced in the Spanish and, even, European context.
In this regard, he stressed that it has gone from being “an antiquarian object, collector’s item, from being a decorative piece in a home, to a cultural heritage asset of Navarra.”
A survivor from ancient times
Of the headless, headless, almost life-size sculpture, he highlighted that it is made up of several linked bronze pieces. This makes him “a survivor of antiquity”, since very few sculptures of this type are preserved since the bronze used to be melted down to turn it into weapons or coins.
Although it is not known who it represents, it was undoubtedly an “important person of the Roman city of Pompelo” due to the type of sculpture and where it was found. A piece of these characteristics also provides “important information about the degree of civilization, well-being and solvency” of Pompelo, he has remarked