PROVIDENCE — How do you move a 3,000-pound sarcophagus? Very carefully.

On Wednesday, professional art movers from Boston wrestled an ancient marble coffin onto a flatbed truck and transported it to the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art on Benefit Street. The sarcophagus is a gift from the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium at Roger Williams Park, where it has languished for more than a century.

The sarcophagus, made of Turkish marble during the second or third century and shipped to Rome, will become part of the RISD Museum’s ancient Greek and Roman Gallery, which will open in the fall of 2010.

“It’s a really wonderful object to teach students about the enduring fascination we have with works of ancient art,” said Gina Borromeo, the RISD museum’s curator of ancient art. “It’s perfect for RISD because it talks about the re-use of objects, when artists react to earlier works of art.”

The Museum of Natural History donated the sarcophagus to RISD because it no longer fits with the museum’s current mission, which focuses on the natural sciences.

Borromeo believes that the sarcophagus was shipped without any adornment and then carved in Rome, where it was designed to meet a rich patron’s specifications. The carvings appear to have been redone in the 18th century, when Europe became fascinated with all things ancient. The design shows satyrs and maenads frolicking in Dionysian delight. In ancient Greece, Dionysus was the god of wine and merriment who later morphed into the Roman god, Bacchus.

“Some conservation work has to be done,” Borromeo said, adding that one end has been damaged.

The last time that RISD re-interpreted its ancient collection was in 1940. This time, the museum is reorganizing its collection around themes, which Borromeo hopes will make the exhibit more lively and accessible to children.

lborg@projo.com