Art News

2,000-Year-Old Ceiling Partially Collapses at Nero’s Fabled Golden Palace

ROME (AP).- A huge chunk of a 2,000-year-old gallery in the complex that includes the infamous Emperor Nero’s fabled Golden Palace collapsed Tuesday, Rome’s art officials said. Officials said they believed nobody was inside when the collapse took place at around 10 a.m., bringing down part of a garden above, but firefighters cordoned off the area as they checked no one was trapped. Nero’s Palace had been closed as workers were doing repairs. Built by Roman emperor Nero in the first century A.D., the sumptuous palace is known to many by its Latin name Domus Aurea. With its frescoed halls and gold-encrusted ceilings, it was meant as a fabled residence for one of Rome’s most depraved emperors. Umberto Broccoli of Rome’s artistic superintendency said the vaulted