Museum receives a peace offering from Italy
November 30,2006
By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
The Patriot Ledger
An ancient marble statue towered under a gray shiny sheet in a corner of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday afternoon, awaiting the arrival of museum trustees, international press and a delayed Italian delegation.
The 9-foot statue, dating from the early 1st century, was a peace offering from the Italian government.
The statue depicting Eirene, the goddess of peace, is on loan to the museum through the fall of 2009.
The figure, glancing toward the missing baby in its arms, came in exchange for 13 disputed antiquities the MFA returned to Rome in September. Rome had claimed the works had been illegally dug up in Italy.
"With the loan of this important antiquity, we mark a new era in which the public has access to the world's greatest treasures, while also making a statement against the illicit excavation and trade of antiquities," said Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, who unveiled the statue at a press conference with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli.
The statue represents a solution to a problem the Italian government has been trying to resolve in recent decades: how to reclaim looted antiquities sold illegally to museums around the world.
But it also provokes a question: Will this policy actually work?
"To me the most important point is will this be a real change in acquisition policies for these museums," said Ricardo Elia, an archaeology professor at Boston University.
"What you have is this huge smuggling and looting market that's feeding dealers and museums," he said.
Looters have been taking artifacts from archaeological sites since ancient times, Elia said, for buildings supplies, preservation and profit.
Artifacts are often broken and sold in pieces to make them less traceable, and such ransacking means archaeologists lose out on a chance to learn about the history of the object.
Italy has been on a mission to recover antiquities sold illegally to museums for many years, prosecuting suspected traffickers and searching through museum collections. A formal investigation has been ongoing since the 1990s.
A 1939 Italian law requires any antiquities found in Italy to be turned over to the state, and in 1970 the United Nations agency UNESCO established a convention that prohibited the sale of illegally excavated material.
As part of the agreement the MFA signed with Italy, the museum returned more than a dozen items it acquired between the 1970s and 1990s that the Italian government proved arrived illegally, including a statue of Sabina; a bas-relief; and vases from central and southern Italy, many depicting scenes from ancient Greek myths.
The agreement creates a partnership in which the Italian government will loan significant works to the MFA. It also offers collaboration in areas of scholarship, conservation, archaeological investigation and exhibition planning.
A similar agreement has been signed with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Italian government is in a dispute with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
"We have a direct line of communication and will be working with them on all antiques from Italy that we wish to acquire," MFA spokeswoman Kelly Gifford said.
Visitors to Tuesday's ceremony – who included Giovanni Castellaneta, ambassador of Italy to the United States and members of the Italian-American business and academic community – said they appreciated the actions of the Italian government and the Boston institution.
"I think today is a nice gesture from the government of Italy to show that we want to loan and export our work to the USA," said Fulvio Abela, an Italian national who lives in Lexington. "It's a unique event."
Roger Dunn, an art history professor at Bridgewater State College who teaches a course on antiquities, said in a phone interview he was sad to see the statue of Sabina go, because he often brought classes to see it. However, he said, he is looking forward to seeing the statue of Eirene.
"I think the director of the Museum of Fine Art's been good in establishing these kinds of exchanges," he said. "This one I think is a very positive outcome."
"With this sculpture there, I think it's even a better addition," he added.
The statue dates to the first half of the 1st century. It is an adaptation of a bronze Greek sculpture dating to the 370s or 360s B.C. Another copy, which includes an infant, is on display at the Glyptothek in Munich.
"Experts say this is the most beautiful existing copy in the world," Rutelli said Tuesday. "I would say you gained. It's the symbol of peace."
Museum of Fine Arts director Malcolm Rogers said it is also symbolic in that it is a peaceful and open exchange between Italy and the Museum of Fine Arts because it was excavated officially rather than looted.
When the statue arrived at the museum a few weeks ago, the head and torso were separated. MFA conservators reattached them, so they are displayed together for the first time in modernity.
"This is a wonderful statue symbolizing what happens when the circumstances are right," Rogers said.
The statue will be on display in the MFA's Roman Court Gallery.
By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
The Patriot Ledger
An ancient marble statue towered under a gray shiny sheet in a corner of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday afternoon, awaiting the arrival of museum trustees, international press and a delayed Italian delegation.
The 9-foot statue, dating from the early 1st century, was a peace offering from the Italian government.
The statue depicting Eirene, the goddess of peace, is on loan to the museum through the fall of 2009.
The figure, glancing toward the missing baby in its arms, came in exchange for 13 disputed antiquities the MFA returned to Rome in September. Rome had claimed the works had been illegally dug up in Italy.
"With the loan of this important antiquity, we mark a new era in which the public has access to the world's greatest treasures, while also making a statement against the illicit excavation and trade of antiquities," said Malcolm Rogers, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, who unveiled the statue at a press conference with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli.
The statue represents a solution to a problem the Italian government has been trying to resolve in recent decades: how to reclaim looted antiquities sold illegally to museums around the world.
But it also provokes a question: Will this policy actually work?
"To me the most important point is will this be a real change in acquisition policies for these museums," said Ricardo Elia, an archaeology professor at Boston University.
"What you have is this huge smuggling and looting market that's feeding dealers and museums," he said.
Looters have been taking artifacts from archaeological sites since ancient times, Elia said, for buildings supplies, preservation and profit.
Artifacts are often broken and sold in pieces to make them less traceable, and such ransacking means archaeologists lose out on a chance to learn about the history of the object.
Italy has been on a mission to recover antiquities sold illegally to museums for many years, prosecuting suspected traffickers and searching through museum collections. A formal investigation has been ongoing since the 1990s.
A 1939 Italian law requires any antiquities found in Italy to be turned over to the state, and in 1970 the United Nations agency UNESCO established a convention that prohibited the sale of illegally excavated material.
As part of the agreement the MFA signed with Italy, the museum returned more than a dozen items it acquired between the 1970s and 1990s that the Italian government proved arrived illegally, including a statue of Sabina; a bas-relief; and vases from central and southern Italy, many depicting scenes from ancient Greek myths.
The agreement creates a partnership in which the Italian government will loan significant works to the MFA. It also offers collaboration in areas of scholarship, conservation, archaeological investigation and exhibition planning.
A similar agreement has been signed with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Italian government is in a dispute with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
"We have a direct line of communication and will be working with them on all antiques from Italy that we wish to acquire," MFA spokeswoman Kelly Gifford said.
Visitors to Tuesday's ceremony – who included Giovanni Castellaneta, ambassador of Italy to the United States and members of the Italian-American business and academic community – said they appreciated the actions of the Italian government and the Boston institution.
"I think today is a nice gesture from the government of Italy to show that we want to loan and export our work to the USA," said Fulvio Abela, an Italian national who lives in Lexington. "It's a unique event."
Roger Dunn, an art history professor at Bridgewater State College who teaches a course on antiquities, said in a phone interview he was sad to see the statue of Sabina go, because he often brought classes to see it. However, he said, he is looking forward to seeing the statue of Eirene.
"I think the director of the Museum of Fine Art's been good in establishing these kinds of exchanges," he said. "This one I think is a very positive outcome."
"With this sculpture there, I think it's even a better addition," he added.
The statue dates to the first half of the 1st century. It is an adaptation of a bronze Greek sculpture dating to the 370s or 360s B.C. Another copy, which includes an infant, is on display at the Glyptothek in Munich.
"Experts say this is the most beautiful existing copy in the world," Rutelli said Tuesday. "I would say you gained. It's the symbol of peace."
Museum of Fine Arts director Malcolm Rogers said it is also symbolic in that it is a peaceful and open exchange between Italy and the Museum of Fine Arts because it was excavated officially rather than looted.
When the statue arrived at the museum a few weeks ago, the head and torso were separated. MFA conservators reattached them, so they are displayed together for the first time in modernity.
"This is a wonderful statue symbolizing what happens when the circumstances are right," Rogers said.
The statue will be on display in the MFA's Roman Court Gallery.
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