The Monteleone chariot is an Etruscan chariot dated to c. 530 BC, considered one of the world's great archaeological finds. It was uncovered in 1902 in Monteleone di Spoleto, Umbria, Italy, in an underground tomb covered by a mound, and is currently a major attraction in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[1]
Though about 300 ancient chariots are known to still exist, only six are reasonably complete, and the Monteleone chariot is the best-preserved[2] and most complete[3][4] of all known surviving examples. Carlos Picón, curator of the museum's Greek and Roman department, has called it "the grandest piece of sixth-century Etruscan bronze anywhere in the world".[5]
- ^ "Bronze chariot inlaid with ivory | Etruscan | Archaic". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- ^ Brendel, Otto; Francesca R. Serra Ridgway (1995). Pelican History of Art : Etruscan Art. Yale University Press. p. 146. ISBN 0-300-06446-2.
(T)he bronze chariot from Monteleone ... easily passes as the most splendid, as well as the most perfectly preserved, example of Archaic metal art in our possession.
- ^ Nag, Kalidas (2007). Art and Archaeology Abroad. Read Books. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-4067-5280-9.
The only complete ancient bronze chariot is the one from Monteleone ... the most notable example of ancient metal work.
- ^ Moore, Malcolm (2007-10-04). "Italian villagers fight New York's Met for 2,600-year-old chariot". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2013-04-21.
For the past decade, the Met has been carefully restoring the chariot, said to be the only intact Etruscan chariot ever found, to its former glory.
- ^ Mead, Rebecca (2007-04-09). "Den of Antiquity: the Met Defends its Treasures". The New Yorker. pp. 54–61.