When I first entered my office at the Cultural Institute two years ago, I saw an oval portrait of Garibaldi hanging on the wall. A young Garibaldi, with a reddish-blond beard, already with a “Nazarene” physiognomy that often leads to his face being fused with that of Christ in so many Risorgimento images.

The inventory states that the portrait is accompanied by an authentication. I thought of a document written by an antiquarian or an art gallery, and I asked that it be taken out of the Institute’s safe to see it. When they brought it to me, I realized that it was, in fact, not a simple authentication, but a handwritten letter from Garibaldi.