Legion of Honor’s Etruscans Exhibition Runs Through September 20

The Legion of Honor is showing The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy, an exhibition of more than 150 objects from the civilization that preceded and shaped ancient Rome. The run continues through September 20, 2026.

The Etruscans lived in central Italy, across what is now Tuscany, Umbria, and northern Lazio, from roughly the 9th to the 1st century BCE. The exhibition gathers bronze and terracotta vessels, sculpture, and gold jewelry that trace their art, religion, and daily life.

What’s in the show

One centerpiece is the Liver of Piacenza, a bronze model of a sheep’s liver marked with the names of Etruscan deities. Priests known as haruspices used such models to read omens from the organs of sacrificed animals. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco say the object is on display outside its region of discovery for the first time. The show also includes funerary sculpture, household vessels, and jewelry drawn from Italian collections.

Why the Etruscans matter

Much of what later became Roman, from city planning to religious ritual, drew on Etruscan practice. Because most surviving Etruscan writing is short and funerary, the language is only partly understood, and objects like these carry much of what is known about the culture.

If you go

The Legion of Honor sits in Lincoln Park in the Richmond District, at 100 34th Avenue. The 18 Muni bus serves Lincoln Park near the museum entrance. The show closes September 20, after which it travels to the San Antonio Museum of Art, on view there from October 31, 2026 through March 14, 2027. For free-admission dates and other exhibitions this month, see our guide to free museum days in San Francisco for July 2026.

Exhibition dates and object details are from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, with additional coverage from KQED.

Photo: Fastily, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.