Museo Gasparri, Archaeological museum in Populonia, Italy

The Museo Gasparri is an archaeological museum in Piombino that displays ceramics, bronze objects, jewelry, and tombstones from ancient times. The collection also includes sarcophagi and personal items that come from various ancient cultures.

The museum opened in 1943, founded by Giulia and Tommaso Gasparri, making it the oldest museum institution in the Val di Cornia. Its first core consisted of finds awarded to the family by the Soprintendenza alle Antichità d'Etruria as a discovery prize, a quarter of the value of the finds from their land. The collection grew in the 1950s and 1960s with finds from government excavations and objects found in the fields and sea of Baratti. In 1985 it was renovated for the Anno degli Etruschi and three years later moved to the former oil mill of Populonia Castle.

The collection shows how Greek artistic forms blended into Etruscan craftsmanship, especially visible in the decorated reliefs from the Porcareccia necropolis. Visitors can see this artistic mixture reflected in the displayed objects.

The museum occupies the former oil mill inside the Castello di Populonia, in the village of Populonia within the comune of Piombino. The 2015 rehang was designed with accessibility criteria, and multimedia supports illustrate the history and human activity of the territory. Objects from the same tomb or context are grouped together, so the visit follows the material culture of Etruscan Populonia.

The large terracotta dolium at the entrance is a Roman storage jar from the 1st century AD, found on the seabed three miles from Punta del Semaforo, east of Piombino. With a circumference of 6 metres, a height of almost 2 metres and a capacity of about 3,100 litres, it held pulses, grain, oil or wine.