The Vittoria Alata from Brescia: a combined neutron techniques and SEM-EDS approach to the study of the alloy of a bronze Roman statue

•Characterizing an archaeological bronze is a challenge as the metal is often highly corroded.•Traditional methods based on superficial and punctual analyses may in some cases suffer from poor representativeness and overestimate the tin and lead content.•Neutron diffraction allows to identify and quantify the concentration of the main metallic and mineralization phases being able to measure gauge volumes of centimetric size.•The Winged Victory is too large and fragile to be transported to a neutron facility.•Therefore, we have characterized multiple samples intended for SEM-EDS Analysis, also by Neutron Diffraction. The comparison of the two techniques has made it possible to effectively quantify the composition of the alloys, and to obtain important clues relating to the manufacturing method of the statue.