Member Opening Reception: The Etruscans

The San Antonio Museum of Art is hosting a member opening reception for The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy on Friday, October 30, the night before the exhibition opens to the general public. The show runs from October 31, 2026, through March 14, 2027, and it's a big one: over 150 objects, curated by Renée Dreyfus. It's billed as the most comprehensive Etruscan exhibition ever staged outside Italy and the first major US show on the Etruscans in two decades, drawing on more than ten years of research.

If you're not familiar with the Etruscans, they were an ancient pagan civilization that flourished in northern and central Italy from roughly 900 to 27 BC, alongside the Greeks, before being absorbed into the Roman world. Their legacy of art, architecture, and engineering has long been overshadowed by the Greeks and Romans, and this show is a chance to see them on their own terms. It also highlights the considerable freedom and public roles women enjoyed in Etruscan society, which is a side of the ancient world that doesn't always get the spotlight.

Among the 150 objects, a few stand out: the Liver of Piacenza, a bronze swaddled baby from the sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni, the Linen Book of Zagreb, and grave goods on loan from the Vatican's Gregorian Etruscan Museum. The exhibition opened here after running at San Francisco's Legion of Honor from May 2 to September 20, 2026.

The museum sits on the River Walk in the buildings that once housed the Lone Star Brewery, and it holds the most comprehensive ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art collection in the southern United States. The member reception is on October 30, and the exhibition opens to everyone on October 31, running through March 14, 2027.