(Rome) In Rome, antiquities recovered after being looted and sold illegally, a trade against which Italy is fighting, have found their sanctuary: the Roman National Museum, which dedicated a room to them two years ago.
This special place, poetically named the “Museum of Saved Art”, is located within the majestic Baths of Diocletian, the largest in ancient Rome, in the heart of the Italian capital.
It tells the story of the works on display: how were they looted during clandestine excavations in Etruscan necropolises north of Rome, or even in Puglia, the heel of the Italian Boot? How were they then taken out of Italy illegally through a network of antique dealers, based for example in Geneva, Switzerland? And finally, how were they sold to foreign collectors?
Some of “these objects were resold or given to major American museums,” explains the director of this museum like no other, the French archaeologist Stéphane Verger.
For years, Italy has launched legal and diplomatic procedures to recover them.
Latest success: a set of three terracotta statues representing “Orpheus and the Sirens”, which the Getty Museum in Los Angeles agreed to return to Italy in 2022 after recognizing that it came from “illegal excavations” .
Returning to their homeland, the trio was exhibited at the Museum of Saved Arts during an exhibition on Italian terracottas. Because the museum is keen to present these works as part of thematic exhibitions. “It’s not a question of remaking like these big museums and simply showing beautiful works,” explains the director, who works to contextualize them.
Especially since the museum considers itself a simple stopover: “the works do not stay here,” explains Stéphane Verger. “After having been exhibited for some time, they are repatriated to other Italian museums”, the very ones where they should have been exhibited if they had not been exported and sold illegally.
Grave robbers
“Clandestine excavations have very negative consequences on the knowledge of ancient cultures,” deplores Mr. Verger.
In the case of necropolises, particularly targeted by the famous “tombaroli” (grave robbers), a stolen object is already a loss in itself, but ignoring the exact circumstances of its discovery irremediably alters the knowledge likely to be gained from it. .
Currently, the museum is temporarily closed due to work, while Rome is being transformed in preparation for the jubilee of 2025, the year declared holy by Pope Francis, during which millions of Catholics are expected in the eternal city.
A transitional state which echoes the way this museum was designed: in perpetual movement. At each exhibition, it must change shape to best showcase the antiques it houses.
Will we soon be able to admire the “Athlete of Fano”, a splendid bronze statue previously exhibited at the Getty Museum? The European Court of Human Rights ruled at the beginning of May in favor of Italy in the dispute between it and the American establishment over the ownership of the work.
The 4th century BC statue, discovered 60 years ago in the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen off the coast of Fano, was said to have been sold immediately, changing hands several times before the Italian state could exercise its right of pre-emption .
The work, which represents a naked athlete (or the Macedonian prince Démetrios Poliorcetes according to some), resurfaced on the art market in 1974 and was then acquired in Munich by the J. Paul Getty Museum for 3.9 million of dollars.
An emblematic journey of coins looted from Italian territory, the cradle of multiple civilizations still full of treasures to discover. As for whether the athlete will stop at the Museum of Saved Arts, “nothing is certain,” warns Mr. Verger.
While awaiting its next guests, this original museum serves as a sanctuary for the dozens of amphorae, coins and busts waiting to be assigned to another Italian museum.