"Will the world save beauty?"
Audio 02:30
The exhibition “Will the world save beauty?”
takes place in Castel Sant'Angelo, located on the right bank of the Tiber in Rome © Wikipedia
By: Anne Le Nir Follow
6 mins
In Italy, there has been since 1969 a special unit of Carabinieri responsible for the protection of cultural heritage and for the first time, a vast exhibition located in the splendid setting of the Castel Sant'Angelo, with the title "The world will save. it beauty?
», Is inspired by Dostoevsky's quote,« Beauty will save the world », highlights their talents.
We discover, in particular, works of art saved from the earthquakes of 2016 and masterpieces, stolen, which could have disappeared forever.
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The story of Bruegel the Younger's "crucifixion" is one of the most fascinating.
The painting was stolen in 1979 from the church of Castelnuovo Magra, in Liguria, then recovered and replaced in the same church where it was almost stolen again in 2019. General Roberto Riccardi, Commander of the Carabinieri for the Protection of Heritage Cultural, tells us what happened.
“In 2018, we learned of the interest in this painting of criminals specializing in the trafficking of works of art. We then replaced the original with a copy and they stole the copy! "
The painting, estimated at 3 million, is exceptionally exposed.
This is a concrete example of the challenges faced by detectives and guardian angels of art who help heal wounds of the soul, underlines one of the exhibition's organizers, Giuseppe Lepore.
“Beauty is also a way to overcome this difficult period.
Protecting our cultural heritage means preserving our present and our future.
"
Among the treasures on display, we also discover works saved from the 2016 earthquakes by the
“
Blue Helmets of Culture
”
.
An intervention force set up in 2015 in partnership with UNESCO.
General Riccardi's explanations:
“This is a specialization that can be followed within the framework of the Carabinieri Command, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. Securing damaged goods is the starting point for restoring them. "
It is to these
“
Blue Helmets” that we owe, in particular, the rescue of the
“Virgin of the Roses”.
This 16th century statue, in polychrome terracotta, adorned a church in the village of Ussita, in the Marche region.
Shortly after the October 2016 earthquake, hundreds of fragments were collected from the rubble.
The restored statue stands in the midst of goods recovered in central Italy.
For the director of the Castel Sant 'Angelo Museum, Mariastella Margozzi, the exhibition is an invitation to collective reflection:
"Will beauty save us? If we save her, she will save us. But to save it you have to understand it! "
This is why the
mostra
, as the Italians say, was designed with a subtle pedagogy.
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