With the help of three Italian workmen, Aphrodite made a grand entrance at The Leonardo Museum of Creativity and Innovation on Monday — and she didn’t move an inch. A 1,200-pound, 2,000-year-old statue of the Greek goddess — excavated nearly a century ago from the ruins of the volcano-stricken Italian town of Pompeii — was ceremonially uncrated Monday, as crews started setting up “Pompeii: The Exhibition” at The Leonardo in Salt Lake City.

“Every time you open a crate, it’s like seeing it for the first time,” said Jackie Hoff, registrar for the touring exhibition, which opens Saturday at The Leonardo, at 209 E. 500 South. The exhibition features more than 150 artifacts from Pompeii, preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, burying everyone and everything in a mound of ash.