Italy will dust off 100 paintings, sculptures, and archaeological items housed in museum storage facilities and disseminate them more equitably across the country through a series of loans in an effort to decentralize its massive state-owned heritage. Works from 14 of Italy's most prestigious state-run museums, including Florence's Uffizi Galleries, Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera, and Naples' National Archaeological Museum, will soon enrich the collections of lesser-known state museums across the peninsula as part of the "100 opere tornano a casa" (One Hundred Works Return Home) project.
The goal is to reintroduce the public to long-forgotten creative treasures, many of which have historical ties to the regions where they will be displayed. "Only 10% of Italy's legacy is currently displayed," a spokesman for Italy's cultural minister, Dario Franceschini. "We're making our tiny museums a little bigger, and in the process, we're encouraging more people to visit them." Two landscapes by the baroque artist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) were relocated from Rome's National Gallery of Ancient Art to Matera's National Museum on Saturday, kicking off the project. Six paintings by 16th and 17th-century artists, including Giovanni Baglione and Cristoforo Roncalli, were moved from Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera to Urbino's Marche National Gallery and Oriolo Romano's Palazzo Altieri.
Following the Christmas holiday, a total of 36 works will be transferred this week and early next year. Meanwhile, ministry officials and museum directors are deciding which items will be included in the second batch of works to be redistributed starting next spring, according to the spokesman. Since 2015, when ministry officials and museum directors began creating a database of 3,652 pieces from 90 state institutions that were deemed acceptable for relocation, the project has been in the works. The ministry has set up €1 million to cover the costs of restoring some of the 100 pieces, as well as transportation fees and reorganizing museum displays to fit the relocated works.
According to ministry data, Italy's state-run museums currently have roughly 480,000 works on exhibit, compared to 4.5 million in storage facilities. According to a ministry official, the redistribution program might potentially cover thousands of works. Many of the first 100 pieces will be returned to the areas where they originally decorated noble mansions or churches. The Gladiator Killing a Lion sculpture ensemble, which includes a Roman torso of Mirtha that the Getty Museum returned to Italy in 1999 and a lion's head found by Carabinieri in 2016, will be relocated from Ostia Antica to the Villa Giustiniani in Bassa Romano, where it previously adorned a pond.
The ministry and Rai, Italy's main public broadcaster, will collaborate on a documentary series about the restoration and relocation of some of the 100 works as part of the project. The main 50-minute episode, as well as 13 20-minute mini-episodes, are now under production. The show will premiere in the spring of 2022.
Selena Mattei