Mario Torelli (born May 12, 1937 in Rome, Italy) is a contemporary scholar of Italic archaeology and the culture of the Etruscans. He teaches at the University of Perugia. Torelli was trained by the famed art historian Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli.
He has held many posts during his professional life, beginning as an assistant at the center for ancient art history in Rome (1960–62), followed by a stint as archaeological inspector of the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome (1964–69). He was appointed professor Greek and Roman art history at the University of Cagliari in 1969, and served until 1973. He also has been instrumental in the excavations of the sanctuary at the site of Gravisca.
He has been visiting professor at a number of institutions, including: University of Colorado at Boulder (1974); University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1978); University of California, Irvine (1979); École Normale Supérieure de Rue d’Ulm in Paris (1984); Université de Paris I - Sorbonne (1985); Collège de France (1986); University of Alberta, Canada (1986); Nellie Vallace lecturer at Oxford (1988); University of Bristol (1993). In 1982 Torelli was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and was Getty Scholar at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in Los Angeles in 1990-91 [1]. He is a member of the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut, and a member of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi in Florence.