The greater part of the museum's classical sculpture collection largely comes from the Farnese Marbles, important since they include Roman copies of classical Greek sculpture, which are in many cases the only surviving indications of what the lost works by ancient Greek sculptors such as Calamis, Kritios and Nesiotes looked like.

These include the Seated Hermes, a sprawling Drunken Satyr, a bust of Thespis, another variously identified as Seneca[1] or Hesiod,[2] and a pair of exceptionally lively runners.

It is made up primarily of works from two private collections, assembled by Cardinal Stefano Borgia in the second half of the 18th century, and Picchianti in the first years of the 19th.

Since the recent rearrangement of the galleries, these two cores of the collection have been exhibited separately, while other items are on display in the connecting room, including Egyptian and "pseudo-Egyptian" artefacts from Pompeii and other Campanian sites.

The highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the collection would vanish from memory.

Censorship was restored during the era of the Kingdom of Italy, and peaked during the Fascist period, when visitors to the rooms needed the permission of the Minister of National Education in Rome.

Censorship persisted in the postwar period up to 1967, abating only after 1971 when the Ministry was given the new rules to regulate requests for visits and access to the section.