Fragility of the Eternal. From Pompeii to the Grand Tour and Beyond, at the National Museum of Art of Timișoara, explores the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 as a defining trauma in the Western imagination. Through the imagined voice of the Roman soldier Lucio Valerio Sacer—a survivor of the eruption who later reached Dacia—the exhibition leads visitors from the apparent stability of Roman urban life to its sudden collapse.

Over one hundred works from major Italian institutions—from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples to the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome—bring together Pompeian frescoes, Grand Tour paintings and drawings, and iconic works by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, and Anselm Kiefer.

Curated by Massimo Osanna and Filip Petcu, this international exhibition inaugurates the Romania–Italy Cultural Year 2026, reflecting on how civilizations confront impermanence and preserve the memory of catastrophe.