Etruscan wishing bull returns to museum after missing

An Etruscan wishing bull has returned to the National Roman Museum more than 100 years after it was loaned and lost during the turmoil of World War II.

During the epidemic, the prodigal bull reappeared. It was mailed anonymously to the Civic Museum of Monza, together with a typed letter titled “47220 Returns Home After 80 Years”. The anonymous writer wrote in a brief letter: “Before starting my last journey, I would like to return this bull because I would like to see it on display in a museum.” It turns out that 47220 is written on the side of the terracotta warriors and horses inventory number.

It was first discovered during excavations in the Etruscan city of Veii in the 1910s, when it was discovered that what once stood on the spine of the Temple of Menerva (the Etruscan version of Athena/Minerva) Unique terracotta statue of Apollo, the bull enters the National Collection of the Roman Museum with inventory number 47220. In the 1920s, it was loaned to the Humane Society of Milan, along with 22 other archaeological artifacts, for the use of students at the Superior School of Art and Industry, then headquartered in the Villa Royale in Monza. The institute retained these artifacts until its closure during the war in 1943. In the chaos of World War II and its aftermath, the young bull disappeared along with the rest of the borrowed artifacts.

The Torello di Veio (Little Bull of Veio) is a typical animal statue included in Etruscan sacrifices from the 4th to 2nd centuries BC. This was the period after the Roman conquest of Vei, when the temple was in decline and offerings were few compared to other holy sites. Well-designed polling in the early stages. Offerings from this period often depicted domestic animals such as cows and pigs. They were used as a symbolic substitute for animal sacrifices and/or to request divine protection for farmers’ livestock, which was crucial to family survival in that era.

According to the letter writer, the bull passed through many hands before acquiring it, but it does not appear to have strayed too far from where it was last seen, as the letter writer was in Monza at the time and believes it belongs there of the museum, rather than its actual owner in Rome. Guilt and impending death apparently prompted him to eventually return it. On Wednesday, the Carabinieri of Monza’s cultural heritage protection unit officially returned the young bull to the museum.