The Etruscans were the dominant economic and cultural power in central Italy from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE. A deeply religious people with no surviving literary tradition, they have fascinated the public since the first significant Etruscan works of art were discovered in the 16th century CE. The MFA possesses one of the best collections of Etruscan art in the United States. Uniquely, it contains a set of 33 reproductions of tomb paintings from the rich necropolis of Tarquinia, commissioned and acquired between 1888 and 1908—shortly after the tombs were discovered and when they were still in pristine condition.