The museum grew out of one Englishman's obsession: Joseph Whitaker, an ornithologist and heir to a family enriched by Marsala wine, who spent his fortune bringing ancient Motya back to light. From 1906 his villa on the island of San Pantaleo became the first nucleus of the antiquarium, and to this day the museum gathers the finds from the Phoenician-Punic site, with some pieces coming from nearby Lilybaeum.
What to see
The piece everyone wants to see is the Motya Charioteer, the Greek marble statue found on the island in 1979: one of the masterpieces of classical art in Sicily. Beside it, the sculptural group of two lions savaging a bull, which surfaced as early as 1793, then ceramics, apotropaic masks, weapons, jewellery and Punic stelae. There is even a trace of the founder's naturalist side: among the cases sits his collection of beetles, a memento of Whitaker the ornithologist.
Visiting
The museum is the heart of a visit to the island: run since 1975 by the Giuseppe Whitaker Foundation and enlarged in 2001, it takes little time and is the natural introduction — or conclusion — to a walk among the excavations. It is worth pairing with Motya's open-air archaeological route, whose finds it collects and explains.
Our editors' tip
Save the Charioteer for last: after walking among the island's walls, tophet and kothon, the statue takes on its full weight. And look for the group of lions over the bull — one of the oldest finds on show here, unearthed almost two centuries before the more famous statue.