The sarcophagus on display at Blenheim Palace.
Vase was used 200 years ago and displays a drunken Dionysus. It was after all a Roman sarcophagus around 1,800 years old.
For almost two centuries, it was treated as a simple decorative garden piece, first as a fountain, then as a vase for tulips. But the marble-fronted container found in the gardens of Blenheim Palace, Englandwas after all part of a rare Roman sarcophagus around 1,800 years old.
The discovery was revealed in 2017 by conservators and palace staff, following an investigation triggered by an antiquities expert who visited the site in 2016. The marble panel, which served as a facade for the vase, dates back to the 3rd century AD and It may have belonged to an elaborate stone coffin for a wealthy Romanduring the heyday of the Roman Empire.
Known now as the Blenheim Sarcophagus, the piece was not completely unknown to experts. Its bas-relief decoration, which represents Dionysus, drunk, accompanied by Hercules and Ariadne and flanked by lion headshad already been studied by classicists and appears referred to in academic works.
There are even drawings of the piece made in the 16th century, including a sketch by the Italian artist Battista Franco Veneziano, before 1530, currently kept at the Städel Museum, in Germany. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also preserves a 16th century drawing of the same sarcophagus.
Despite this, the object remained visible to thousands of visitors for decades, mistaken for a classically inspired decorative reproduction — something common in gardens and historic properties.
In 2010, a visitor even posted a photo of the piece on TripAdvisor, describing it as a flowerbed that looked like a Roman sarcophagus. Lenathat is, in the shape of a bathtub.
After being removed from the lead container to which it was attached, the panel was revealed to be about two meters long and almost 400 kilos in weight. Experts estimated its value at around 300 thousand pounds sterling. According to Nicholas Banfield, from Cliveden Conservation, responsible for the restoration, cited by , the piece was in “remarkable condition”, taking into account the aggressive environments to which it was subjected.
The sarcophagus was now cleaned, stabilized and placed inside the palace, away from the natural elements. However, it remains a mystery: it is only known that it came into the possession of the 5th Duke of Marlborough in the 19th century. How and when it was acquired may never be made clear.
