MANN has lost 5 million euros. But it still starts with new digital campaigns

The Covid-19 crisis has cost the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, one of the world’s most important archaeological museums, a loss of 5 million euros. MANN director Paolo Giulierini said this morning at the microphones of Radio Crc Targato Italia. “The Archaeological Museum of Naples,” Giulierini said, “has lost 5 million euros. I ask the institutions of Campania and Naples for sobriety and cooperation, and I ask the community to support us by making a subscription in December to help culture.” The museum, Giulierini added, “is an essential service but it was a bit strange that one part was open and one part closed. A closure for everyone prevailed but I think that happening in November does not affect the revitalization process.”

MANN, like all museums, is therefore working on digital, and is on its way to presenting amajor offering. On digital, the MANN is among the most active museums: the Innovation in Cultural Heritage Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, during the first lockdown, had identified it as the most active institution on Facebook, a trend that the museum intends to confirm also in this new lockdown phase by attesting itself among the most present on social.

The first digital campaign that MANN launches in this new culture lockdown is titled Seven statues for seven days: it is an advance of a virtual tour of the Campania Romana Section, which will be open to the public again from June 2021. The tour is anticipated with seven photographs proposed to the public through seven posts, kicking off at 8 p.m. on November 14, 2020, a symbolic date since, for that date and that specific time, Museum Night was scheduled, with extraordinary openings that, due to the Covid emergency, are now transformed into virtual appointments.

From next Saturday, thus, fans and followers will be able to find, on the web, a space to admire almost unknown sculptures: in fact, the masterpieces chosen for this digital campaign will not be the well-known Doriforo of Policileto, the Mazzocchi Horse or the Aphrodite of Capua, works that will also figure in the Campania Romana remounting, but some marbles that, mostly coming from the MANN’s deposits, will enrich the ground floor rooms in the Museum’s western wing. Guiding Internet users on an itinerary of discovery, to be experienced for now with likes, comments and shares, will be seven photographs by Luigi Spina. The real bet of Spina’s campaign, they let MANN know, will be to reconcile the scientific needs of documentation with the strong aesthetic sense expressed by the marbles and bronzes: an approach that is both popular and rigorous, which will not only “reward” archaeology enthusiasts, but also devotees of evocative and emotional image research.

The first post will therefore be next Saturday with the male statue of the so-called Germanicus: it comes from the Macellum of Pompeii, dates back to the first decades of the first century AD and is one of the treasures uncovered from the MANN’s deposits. Then it will be the turn of the Omphalos-type head of Apollo (from Cumae, a 2nd-century Roman copy of an original from the Severan age), which will be posted on Sunday. Then again the 1st-century head probably part of a cult statue from the Temple of Jupiter in Pompeii, the draped female figure (from the Herculaneum Forum, 1st century AD), the sculpture of Olconius Rufus (1st century AD.),which comes from the crossroads of Via Stabiana in Pompeii, the female statue of Concordia Augusta (from Pompeii, Eumachia building, 1st century AD) and the Bust of Plotina (from the Mercury sector of the Palatium of Baia, 117-138 AD, also kept in storage for many years).

Luigi Spina’s photo campaign is part of the museum’s heritage enhancement practice, and other stages will follow, the museum has already preannounced.

Pictured: the statue of Olconio Rufus.

MANN has lost 5 million euros. But it still starts with new digital campaigns

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