Rome — Last month, Italian officials opened a new museum here. The title sets a lofty agenda. Museo dell’Arte SalvataOr a museum of rescued art.
Rescue art is a broad term, and in museums, time by thieves, rubble of earthquakes and other national disasters, ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, or restorations by Italian experts.
Dario Franceschini, Minister of Culture of Italy, said at the opening ceremony of the museum, “to show the world the wonders of our work” in all these areas.
However, the museum’s first exhibition, which will be held until October 15, focuses on the restoration of plundered art and pays homage to the Italian crack art theft police force, Carabinieri Command for Cultural Heritage Preservation. Represents. The unit is said to have brought thousands of works of art back to Italy and effectively thwarted the “black market for archaeological relics.”
Approximately 100 works (Greco Roman vases and sculptures, as well as coins from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC) are on display in the museum. The museum is located in a cave hall built as part of the Diocletia Baths. Currently attached to the National Roman Museum.
But their stay at the exhibition here will be similar to a pit stop.
For many years, the Italian Ministry of Culture’s policy was to return the recovered relics to the museum closest to the place where they may have been looted. This process can sometimes involve difficult deductions, given the secret nature of the excavation.
So, for example, when the looted 2nd-century marble statue of Hadrian’s wife Vivia Sabina was transferred by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2006, it was returned to his villa in Tivoli (). Temporary display Recently exhibited by the Chamber of Commerce in Rome).
It is up to a team of archaeologists and experts to decide where to return the relics of this new museum.
“I think this is a museum of damaged art, as the works on display here are deprived of the context of discovery and attribution,” said Stephen, director of the National Roman Museum under the supervision of the new museum. Verger said.
The Italians focus on restoring art and faithfully returning it to its original place, but there are critics, no matter how far away. In a globalized world where efforts are being made to spread culture, address international issues and remove economic and social barriers, the return of ancient Western relics is a more isolated permanence of the importance of national identity. Tells the story. Others claim that ancient times are most often found in facilities that attract millions of visitors, rather than local museums in remote towns that are more likely to attract dust than people. ..
A good example is the evolution of the exhibition known as “Nostoi: A Recovered Masterpiece”. This is from the return Greek, first installed by the Italian cultural authorities in 2007, as a victorious recognition of the successful return of the stolen relics. .. Held at the Italian presidential residence in Rome, the exhibition acknowledged great success by persuading Italy to return dozens of items to Italy. Especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.
However, since 2017, a refurbished version of the “Nostoi” exhibition has been installed in a series of small rooms in a low building on the central square of Cerveteri, a fortress of Etruria known as Caere, about 25 km northwest of Rome. I did. The exhibition does not have regular visits, but the Tour Guides Association, which occupies the adjacent space, will open rooms on request.
“We have to rely on volunteers to keep it open,” said Alessio Pascucci, the mayor of Cerveteri until last month (he didn’t run for reelection). ), Nevertheless, the current museum wants to become a national institution. Returned art.
Probably Italy’s biggest prize in the fight against looted ancient relics, the abandoned stones and the invaluable Euphronios krater are also on display in the local environment, in context and locally. Can stimulate tourism and the economy. The 6th century BC deficit Krater was plundered from the tomb of Cerveteri in 1971 and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a year later for $ 1 million. This was an unprecedented amount at the time. The Metropolitan Museum of Art abandoned the clutter in 2006. After a stint in Roman Villa Julia, it is now permanently added. Archaeological Museum in CerveteriThe Getty Museum, also with Kylix, also by Euphronios, or a drinking cup, returned to Italy in 1999 after evidence of its muddy history was revealed.
When these two works were lent to the Archaeological Museum in Cerveteri in 2014, Minister of Culture Francescani came up with the idea of a new museum displaying ancient relics recovered before returning to their local origin. I said it came to me. Julia, cultural officials have determined that the two ships are better in Cerveteri near the place where they were illegally excavated.
Today, the Euphronios Krater is a “symbol of the city itself,” Francescani said at the opening ceremony of the Rescue Museum. “We are convinced that it is most important to put the work back in place.”
Vincenzo Berelli, the new director of the Cerveteri Archaeological Park, said it was a “courageous decision”, an “enlightened policy that gave local museums fresh opportunities” and could expand their appeal. Said that. “It’s betting on a place of culture,” he said.
In October, after the exhibition at the Rescue Museum, 20 pieces, including red Pithos on a white background with a lid, will be assigned to Cerveteri, dazzlingly decorated by Poseidon and Thoosa giant Polyphemus. It’s a schedule. The Pithos, or Large Ship, is a work of Etruscan 7th century BC recently recovered from the Getty Museum.
Bellelli said that for now, Pithos will be given its own glass case at the museum, along with the work of Euphronios.
But like Werger, he argued that the story of looting and recovering these works was just a footnote to a much more important story in the history of the city.
The discovery of two vases in Cerveteri, made by Euphronios, one of the most famous artists in ancient Greece, demonstrates the importance of the city of Etruria at the time. “It was an ancient hub,” “a major market,” and a place where ideas were conveyed.
“There was a reason why such a precious vase was found in Cerveteri,” he said.
Until then, the returning artifacts will spotlight a new museum in Rome.
The works currently on display were confiscated by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from museums, auction houses, and private collectors in the United States and acted on evidence of illegal sources provided by Carabinieri.
Last December, 200 items were handed over to Italian officials. This is what is said to be the largest single return of relics from the United States to Italy, and such an important return was “called to the exhibition,” said Massimo Osanna, head of the Ministry of Culture. I am saying. Directorate General of the Museum.
“We are already working on a new exhibition because there are so many interesting materials,” he said.
Mr. Berger said that the current exhibition was the work of the Italian prosecutor “Carabinieri” and “very important” for decades in Italy to thwart trafficking. He said he was exemplifying.
An explanatory panel located inside the showcase outlines decades of investigation into some of Carabinieri, often leading to criminal proceedings and subsequent tort returns. However, it rarely points to museums and collectors. It stimulated the black market, whether inadvertently or not. In most cases, dozens of vases, vases, statues and coins are presented according to type and potential history, not the collection in which they were taken away.
Not taking responsibility was a conscious choice.
“The work has been returned, it’s back,” Burger said. He added that the exhibition at the museum was a kind of “brackets of the life of an object”. “The illegal stage is over and a new life is about to begin.”
