Webinar Initiative in ISLAMIC MATERIAL CULTURE
Webinar Initiative inISLAMIC MATERIAL CULTURE
Prevent the Closure of the National Museum of Oriental Art in ItalySALVIAMO IL MUSEO NAZIONALE D’ARTE ORIENTALE DI PALAZZO BRANCACCIO DALLA CHIUSURA!
11 October 2017
(This is an English translation of the petition delivered to the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini via change.org)
Again the Italian government jeopardizes the sector of art and culture by perpetrating another crime against the artistic patrimony of the state.
The Cultural Heritage Ministry intends to close the National Museum of Oriental Art (Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale), established in the Brancaccio Mansion in 1957 – located in the heart of the city of Rome – a home to the most important Italian collection of Oriental Art. The 1990s refurbishment and restoration works of the mansion, worth 2 billion, allowed for preservation of frescos and furniture of the palace and its vaporization as part of architectural cultural heritage. The palace itself is a perfect frame and environment to hold the Oriental Art Collection.
The collection holds approximately 4o.ooo objects of oriental art from the waste geographic area ranging between India, Japan, China and Chorea. These objects of cultural heritage assume an exceptional importance on national and European level, due to the number, quality and diversity of these works of art. Moreover, priceless objects from Tibet and Nepal were recently integrated in the collection. In its entirety the collection is essentially archaeological. It contains objects from a waste chronological span from the third millennium BCE until the present days: statues of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Gandhara reliefs with episodes of Buddha’s life… These objects of cultural heritage are closely connected to the history of Italian scientific research in Asia, and above all to the life and works of Giuseppe Tucci (1894-1984) internationally distinguished orientalist, whose hires donated the entire collection to the Museum.
Instead of promoting this heritage, which, if managed and valued properly could be a source of income for Italy and Italians, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage (MIbact) – took the decision move the Collection from its original location in the heart of the Esquiline quarter to inevitably much more confined spaces of other structures of EUR (sede dell'Esposizione Universale di Roma). This would determine a display of only a minimal part of the entire Collection and its consequent dismemberment.
This unique cultural heritage would be appropriately valorised and taken care of, with economic profit in any other country. The Italian state however chooses not to undertake these actions, despite having an excessive number of directors with some of the highest salaries in Europe.