Museum of the Gilded Bronzes Pergola

The "Bronzi Dorati da Cartoceto di Pergola" is the only group of gilded bronzes in the world dating from Ancient Roman times still in existence.
They most likely represent a family group, originally two female figures, cloaked and veiled, and two horsemen in high-ranking military garb with richly ornamented horses.
The sculptures are forged using indirect lost wax in a lead-rich, copper alloy and gilded in gold leaf.
They bear precious witness to the policy common from the late Republican period of using monumental images to underline Roman power; in this case they have been carried out to a high technical standard.
An early theory identified the group as being from the Imperial Giulio - Claudia family.
According to this hypothesis the statues, erected between 23 and 29 AD and destroyed around 30, portrayed the male figures of Nero and Drusus III, while the female figures were Livia (the better conserved statue) and Agrippina Maggiore.
Current research, still underway and for a variety of reasons more relisble, dates the group to the earlier period of Caesar (between 50 and 30 BC).
According to this theory the statues may well represent the members of a high-ranking, noble family, possibly in some way connected to the Marche area; possible identities, according to researchers, range from the glorious and very wealthy stock of Dominizi Enobarbi and the relationship throug adoption between Marco Satrio, senator and probable patron of Sentinum, and Lucio Minucio Basilo, Juliul Caesar's lieutenant and future assassin.