The tomb was found in 1842-1843 on the land of Marquis Gian Pietro Campana, a collector of all things Etruscan, who had opened the passageway to the tomb and installed a new door, but otherwise left it untouched. The first to describe it at length was George Dennis in 1848, in his work The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. He considered the paintings to be the oldest Etruscan paintings and possibly the oldest paintings in Europe known at the time.
