It's a trend that started in the third decade of the 21st century and that we hope will become a habit: opening museum deposits.
If in Rotterdam (Netherlands) a deposit has become a museum itself, attracting visitors from all over the world with a new formula, in Italy it has been decided to move the works of art by sending them to their places of origin, exhibiting them in the museums of the territories from which they come, with the double purpose of making them accessible again and mending a tear that history had created.
The choice was made on the basis of three criteria. The first regards works coming from churches or palaces located in other territories and which, over time, have found their way into the main Italian museums, paintings or sculptures that in this way make a "homecoming" in the places for which they were created. The second regards works that integrate the collections of the museum of destination. The third is about works that, inserted into the collections of destination, create interesting juxtapositions and favor the opening of the museums to new audiences. Thanks to the project, numerous works have been restored and some museum spaces have been redesigned to accommodate them.
A hidden patrimony, of enormous historical and artistic value, is therefore returning to light. This is not a sensational discovery, but a pondered and intelligent decision on the part of the Ministry of Culture, which presented the project "100 opere tornano a casa” (100 works come back home), addressing some of the urgent themes of museology: on the one hand, the works conserved in the deposits of the great museums and not available to the public, and on the other, the smaller cultural sites, in the peripheral areas or those less travelled by tourists. The equation is simple and effective: 100 works kept in the deposits of 14 of the most important museums in Italy will return to their respective territories of origin, for which they were conceived and there exhibited in the less frequented museums.
This project gives new life to works of art that are not really visible, by more or less well-known artists, and promotes smaller, peripheral and less frequented museums. Only a part of the works in state museums is currently on display: the rest is kept in deposits, from which all the paintings and exhibits involved in this initiative come. These 100 works are only the first of a long-term project that aims to enhance the immense cultural heritage owned by the State.
As a result of this initiative, two paintings of the 17th century by Salvator Rosa will return to the public that, from the deposit of the Barberini Corsini National Galleries in Rome(Lazio), will find a home at the National Museum of Matera (Basilicata).
The "Madonna with Child in Glory and Saints John the Baptist" and "Ecce Homo" by Federico Barocci, the "Madonna with Child and Saints Augustine and Magdalene and Angels" by Pomarancio, the "Madonna with Child in Glory and Saints Barbara and Terence" and "The Child Jesus Appears to Saint Anthony of Padua" by Simone Canterini from the Pinacoteca di Brera (Lombardy), will go to enrich the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino.
Annibale Strata's "Allegory of Trieste and Istria" will leave the Royal Museums of Turin (Piedmont) to return to the Miramare Castle in Trieste (Friuli Venezia Giulia).
The sculptural group "Gladiator killing a lion" that decorated the fish pond of Villa Giustiniani and the torso returned by the Getty Museum in 1999, from the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica (Lazio) will return to embellish the Villa of Vincenzo Giustiniani in Bassano Romano, province of Viterbo (Lazio).
The "Head of bronze beam" of the furnishings of the ships of Caligula 37-41 AD from the Museo Nazionale Romano (Lazio) is now at the Museo delle Navi Romane in Nemi (Lazio).