The Queen of Spain loved it. Napoleon Bonaparte nearly stole it. Pope Pius VII rescued it. And, when it went up for sale in 1897, near its 1,672nd birthday, Isabella Stewart Gardner had to have it.
Since arriving in Boston over a century ago, the Farnese Sarcophagus — a 7,500-pound marble coffin constructed by Turkish craftsmen around 225 — has enchanted patrons of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with its sensual depiction of Greek mythology.
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