The Museum of Rescued Art will be based in Rome. It will be a safe and transitory place for recovered works

The Museum of Saved Art will be born in Rome, to be located in theOctagonal Hall of the Baths of Diocletian. The museum, the establishment of which was announced by Culture Minister Dario Franceschini a few weeks ago, will thus be part of the National Roman Museum, and will tell the story of the rescue of art in its various forms. It will be a place where artworks that have been stolen, dispersed, sold, or illegally exported will be able to transit and be exhibited to the public for a limited period of time, and then brought back home to their home museums. Returns due to cultural diplomacy or as a result of the investigations of the Carabinieri TPC Command and the work of the Blue Helmets of Culture, discovery in the rubble of earthquakes and as a result of interventions in natural disasters and conflicts, rescues thanks to major restorations, fortuitous recoveries of antiquities or due to emergency excavations for public and private works, and masterpieces restored by the Central Institute for Restoration (ICR): it will be all these works of art that will find in the Museum of Rescued Art a safe place to be displayed for a period.

“Stolen works of art, archaeological artifacts dispersed, sold or exported illegally: this is a significant loss to a country’s cultural heritage, an expression of its historical memory and collective values, as well as the identity of a people,” said Dario Franceschini. “Protecting and enhancing these riches is an institutional duty, but also a moral commitment: it is necessary to assume this responsibility towards future generations, so that they can preserve, with these testimonies, that identity value that allows them to recognize themselves in a common cultural history.” "A permanent museum with a rotating collection, in which the recovered works of art will transit before being returned to their places and museums of origin,“ the minister concluded. ”This is a place of particular importance in Rome. If there is a sector in which our country is recognized as a reality of absolute excellence at the international level, it is precisely that of the protection and illicit countering of works of art, and this is also thanks to the extraordinary commitment of the Carabinieri for the protection of cultural heritage, which I will never cease to thank because they not only do good for the recovery of works of art, but also for the image of the country. With the Municipality of Rome we are reasoning about a very ambitious project that will make it possible to connect the Museum of Saved Art to the Baths of Diocletian and have an island of culture near Termini station, where millions of tourists and travelers pass through."

“We are delighted to welcome within the National Roman Museum the Saved Art Museum, which was created at the behest of Minister Dario Franceschini and with the joint efforts of the General Directorate for Museums,” added Stéphane Verger, director of the National Roman Museum. “We are enthusiastic as well about this first exhibition, which was able to take place thanks to the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and their fundamental work for the country and especially for works of art. I hope that the new museum will accommodate major exhibition projects, acting on the one hand as a ’safe haven’, for those works that will depart from here for a permanent location, away from anything that can do them harm; on the other hand as a ’sieve’, to separate for later relocation to their rightful place, the same that will be investigated to verify their degree of authenticity and origin: all this to fully grasp the archaeological, historical and artistic importance of the treasures found and displayed for the first time to the public at the National Roman Museum, in the Museum of Saved Art.”

The layout of the new museum, consisting of modular display cases and panels, will allow the arrangement within the Hall to be changed each time, which will become a suitable exhibition space to accommodate new treasures by making them visible to the general public. While the exhibits will be placed in the relevant museums, new recovered works will be displayed in order to make continuous updates on the masterful recovery work constantly underway.

On the occasion of the museum’s opening, recent findings made in the activities to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property carried out by the TPC Operational Department will be displayed. The exhibition is based on the objects that the TPC Operational Department has brought back from the United States of America in a time frame between December 2021 and last week: an impressive body of works with numerous pieces of archaeology from various civilizations. Finds dating back to various investigative activities conducted by the Art Carabinieri in cooperation with U.S. authorities, seized from museum directorates, auction houses and private collections in various overseas locations.

Upon completion of the temporary exhibition, the works will be placed between the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto, the National Cerite Archaeological Museum within the Archaeological Park of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, and in the National Roman Museum itself.

Prominent among the exhibits are the oldest artifacts dating back to the Orientalizing period (7th century B.C.): they come mainly from southern Etruria but also from Latium, such as the Etruscan-made (Cerveteri) red impasto ceramic jar (pithos) overpainted in white with a mythological scene of the blinding of Polyphemus and animals from the third quarter of the 7th century B.C.B.C. and the Ceremonial Krater with four handles surmounted by red impasto ceramic cups overpainted in white of northern Latium production (Crustumerium) with water birds (7th century B.C.). Amphorae with figured scenes date to the second half of the 6th century B.C.: some are Attic and illustrate the stylistic evolution of this period, others are Etruscan and cover the same chronological span such as the Etruscan black-figure Amphorae with faced warriors on the belly and eyes on the shoulder (late 6th century B.C.)

Etruscan necropolises have yielded a vast amount of ceramics from the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Possibly from Etruria are the specimens recovered by the TPC Command in the United States, although the precise origins are unknown, as with the exposed Attic red-figure cup (kylix) with Dionysus (inside) and satyrs with maenads (outside) from the early fifth century BCE. Black-painted and red-figure productions developed in Magna Graecia between the second half of the fifth and the first half of the fourth century B.C.: on display are the cauldron-shaped krater (lebes) with a banquet scene (symposion) featuring the game of kottabos and the two-ringed red-figure dish with an overpainted central mask and a war scene between Greeks and Amazons from the second half of the fourth century B.C., both of Apulian production. From a large votive stipe, in an unidentified shrine in southern Etruria or Latium, comes the terracotta Votive Head of Etruscan-Latium production from the 4th century B.C.E., on which some traces of polychromy can be seen that bring ancient faces to life.

The objects will be on display from June 16 until Oct. 15, 2022, and for the occasion the museum premises will be open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Museum of Rescued Art will be based in Rome. It will be a safe and transitory place for recovered works

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