Dr Roko Rumora

  • Senior Curator, Mediterranean Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum
  • Linked Appointment, Faculty of Classics
Dr Roko Rumora

Contact

Connect

Location

  • The Fitzwilliam Museum
  • Trumpington Street, Cambridge , CB2 1RB

About

I was born and raised in Croatia, where I began studying Latin and Greek through the public school system. After high school, I moved to the United States, earning a degree in Art History from Columbia University in 2014. My first museum job, at the Brooklyn Museum, shaped my decision to become a curator.

I went on to complete a PhD in Art History at the University of Chicago (2025), where I developed a specialisation in Roman marble sculpture from Anatolia. A graduate curatorial fellowship allowed me to further my museum work at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from 2022 to 2024. Before coming to Cambridge, I was Assistant Curator of Ancient Art at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio (2024–2026).

Today, I serve jointly on the Faculty of Classics and as Senior Curator of Mediterranean Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, overseeing collections that extend from the Greek and Roman world to the Levant, South Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Iran.

Research

  • Roman sculpture, Anatolia, and the eastern Roman Empire
  • Ancient display, repair, and interpretation
  • How ancient viewers made meaning from objects in space

I am an art historian focusing on the sculptural production of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, especially Anatolia (present-day Türkiye). My research examines what might be described as curatorial work in antiquity: how Roman patrons chose, arranged, and maintained objects in public spaces. As part of my curatorial work, I am also continuously engaged in provenance research and the study of the twentieth-century illicit antiquities trade.

Recently, my research has focused on statue repairs and other forms of aesthetic upkeep in Asia Minor, including the modification of public sculpture by Christian communities. Part of my interest lies in the logistical side of this work – How were statues hoisted up into their niches? Who paid for their cleaning? Where were they stored when not on view?

A central concern of my research is interpretation: how viewers compared nearby statues, read objects through space, responded to inscriptions and architectural settings, and coped with confusing, damaged, or anonymous monuments. This interest extends to ekphrasis, visual rhetoric, and the later reception of ancient sculpture, including Winckelmann and the modern historiography of classical art.

Teaching and supervision

Teaching: 

  • Greek and Roman art, archaeology, and visual culture
  • Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique sculpture
  • Museum collections, provenance research, and curatorial practice

I teach and supervise across Greek and Roman art and archaeology, with particular interests in the visual culture of the eastern Roman Empire. I especially welcome projects on sculpture, Anatolia/Asia Minor, public monuments, statue display, display architecture, and the relationship between objects, viewers, and urban space.

My teaching and supervision also extend to provenance research and curatorial practice, which includes investigating past dealers active in the twentieth century trade in antiquities. Areas of interest in this area include Türkiye, Lebanon, Syria, Greece, and the Balkans.