Barbarians and museum curators have removed most of the villa's treasures, but a stroll through the remaining pillars, arches, and mosaic fragments in gardens running wild among the olive trees, cypresses, and pines can be marvelously evocative of a lost world.
The villa once housed a vast collection of paintings and sculptures. 
mnli hypothesis: The villa once housed a vast collection of paintings and sculptures.  premise: Barbarians and museum curators have removed most of the villa's treasures, but a stroll through the remaining pillars, arches, and mosaic fragments in gardens running wild among the olive trees, cypresses, and pines can be marvelously evocative of a lost world.