The Riaci Bronzes are dazzling bronze statues found beneath the sea in 1972 and exhibited to the public for the first time in 1981. Scholars have been arguing since, about their origins and meaning. The latest explanation published in Rome, suggests that one of the magnificent figures is a cannibal, he has a red, copper-covered mouth and silver teeth, and the other is his philosophical brother. They are two of the seven brothers immortalized by the Greek playwright Aeschylus in his drama, The Seven Against Thebes.
Dating back to 500 B.C., the bronzes of Riace were discovered off the east coast of Calabria in August 1972 at a depth of only 8 meters and 300 meters from the shoreline. The complete restoration of the two bronzes lasted five years and finally on August 3, 1981 (after a first exhibition in Florence and a second in Rome), the two statues are now exhibited in the National Museum of Reggio Calabria. Seismologists and engineers who visit these statues will also be entertained by the display describing the complex internal damping mechanisms that were installed in the statues in case of local earthquakes (complete with all the partial differential equations).

Since 1981, the museum houses a section devoted to underwater archaeology. It was established following the finding of two bronze statues, the "Bronzi di Riace", now on permanent display after the conservation treatment in Florence and the two temporary exhibitions in Florence and Rome. These bronze statues are considered two of the most impressive examples of the Greek bronze sculpture "a tuttotondo", dated to the 5th century BC; their state of conservation is quite extraordinary. The section also houses material found in an sunk wreck off Porticello, in the Straits of Messina. The famous bronze head, bearded and deeply absorbed in thought, known as the Philosopher's Head from Porticello, is among these finds.
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