Diocletian’s Baths: The Museum of Rescued Art
Attic amphorae from 6. century b.C.
There is much to discover in a city like Rome. I would even say that a single lifetime is not enough to get to know this city. In Luigi Pirandello's work The Late Mattia Pascal, the character of Anselmo Paleari describes Rome as "a sad, dead city [...] Locked in the dream of her majestic past, she does not want to know about the petty little life which insists on bustling around her. When a city has had a history like Rome's, with such distinguished and prominent protagonists, it can’t become a modern city, that is, a city like any other. Rome lies there with her great heart broken on the spurs of the Capitol [...].The popes, in their own way, of course, made it into a holywater stoup. We Italians, in our own way, have turned it into an ashtray. We come here, from all over, to drop the ash of our cigars, which I am taking as a symbol of the frivolity of this wretched life of ours and the bitter, toxic pleasure it gives us."
A merciless reproach that referred to the consequences of Italy’s unification, specifically to the destruction of the urban landscape by property speculation and to the massive immigration that followed Rome’s transformation into a capital city. Today every Roman knows that this description is still profoundly true, with all its typical Italian contradictions and complexity. For Rome is a huge, crowded, chaotic, and often disorganized city with problems as old as itself.
Nevertheless, some silent and marvelous oases exist, hidden in this complicated, often too noisy urban jungle. Little-known, secret places that Paolo Sorrentino masterfully described in the movie The Great Beauty (2013). Old, crumbling villas covered with frescoes, abandoned gardens with lush Mediterranean trees, half-empty museums where elderly, aristocratic ladies play cards among ancient statues after closing time, and imperial ruins where opera performances or readings take place on summer evenings. Rome is all that and, of course, much more. A city of a thousand faces, both ancient and modern, forming a sort of jigsaw puzzle whose composition would be the work of a lifetime.
But that is not what I want to talk about here. Rather, I would like to tell you about one of those offbeat places, rich in atmosphere and history, where you will never stumble upon hordes of tourists. In a 19th-century neighborhood, just a few steps away from Piazza della Repubblica and Michelangelo's Church of S. Maria degli Angeli, a new section of the National Roman Museum has opened on June 15, 2022, called Museo dell’Arte Salvata (Museum of Rescued Art). The new museum is located inside an ancient Roman hall belonging to the Baths of Diocletian; an exhibition of art objects and archaeological findings that were retrieved and returned to the Italian State by the Carabinieri Unit for the Art & Heritage Protection after they had been looted and taken out of the country in the past years. Such artifacts are on display for a limited time, before reaching a permanent destination in their regions of origin.
In the past, the yearly exhibition of Carabinieri’s rescued works, always very successful, was held in the halls of Palazzo Barberini. A more suitable location for this popular event was recently found: the the so-called Aula Ottagona (Octagonal Hall) in the Baths of Diocletian (4th century AD). Over the centuries, this hall has been used in many different ways: as a church, a granary, an oil storage facility, a gymnasium, a projection room and a planetarium. After several restorations in the eighties and nineties, it has become an exhibition space.
Octagonal Hall inside Diocetian’s Baths
I first came to the Aula Ottagona in 2002, as a student of art history at the Roma Tre University, which is next door. Every Saturday morning, my professor of Greek & Roman Art would lead tours for students in museums with important collections of ancient statues. It was in the Aula Ottagona that I first saw the Boxer, a masterpiece of Hellenistic bronze sculpture now on display at Palazzo Massimo (National Roman Museum). Much has changed since that time. The Aula Ottagona was closed once again for several years and reopened for its current (and hopefully definitive) designation.
I agree with the choice of transforming this ancient frigidarium into the home of a new museum. Its ancient walls still preserve the original niches where statues of athletes, heroes and deities were displayed during Roman times. The dome is also still in its original state, whereas the stucco decoration of the ceiling and the marble wall inlays no longer survive. Here we are in front of an imposing example of ancient Roman architecture: an airy and serene space that will provide an impressive environment for the works that will be shown in the exhibition.
The appellation Arte Salvata (Rescued Art) recalls the need to tell the story of artifacts coming from illegal trade, destruction by grave robbers or earthquakes rubble and how they were returned to the community thanks to the restoration work conducted by institutions such as ISCR, Opificio delle Pietre Dure (Workshop of Semi-precious Stones) or ICPAL, as well as with the help of UNESCO and the Carabinieri Unit for the Art & Heritage Protection. Since this unit was created back in 1969, the Carabinieri have succeeded in returning to Italy more than three million antiquities coming from illicit excavations, illegal export and fencing. But how do Carabinieri manage to locate looted art objects that are now abroad?
The main tool of their work is a huge database, created in several decades, which thoroughly records the loot and becomes essential to prove the illegal origin of such artifacts in order to obtain their confiscation on behalf of the Italian State. However, international cooperation between Italy and several prestigious museums has intensified in recent years. In view of their codes of conduct, several institutions have made contact with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Carabinieri to have the legal origin of their antiquities verified. This was the case with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that returned the Euphronios Crater (6th century B.C.), stolen from Cerveteri in 1971. The Fine Arts Museum in Boston also returned the marble statue of Vibia Sabina, wife of Emperor Hadrian, which had been recognized in photographs confiscated in the Geneva free port. A verification method was developed over the years, for the acquisition of further archaeological finds based on exchange of information between Italy and other countries.
Roman copy of a Greek Original from 2. century a.D.
The site’s first exhibition focuses on archaeological finds that turned up during two separate investigations: 2021 in the United States and 1995 in Basel. Artifacts from the US consisted of pre-Roman terracotta items such as votive objects, banquet vases, and antefixes (probably from temples) originally from central and southern Italy. In Basel instead, extremely rare and valuable art objects were retrieved such as amphorae, kraters, oinochoe, kantharos, figural vases, votive statues, and marble and bronze statues for a total value of over 50 million Euros.
Apulian ceramics from 4. century b.C.
Nothing is known about the archaeological context of such artifacts, as they came to light through illegal excavations. Unfortunately, that prevents us from fully understanding their historical significance, at least for the time being. Furthermore, it cannot be excluded that some of these artworks are fakes, given the incredible state of preservation or the particularly vivid colors of some of the exhibits. Additional research (archaeological, chemical, typological, and stylistic) is required to find out more about them and eventually confirm the authenticity of such finds.
Regardless, this is only the first in a series of exhibitions that will take place in this new location. The display of artifacts will alternate according to the evolution of enforcement operations, international return actions, and recoveries of artifacts coming from geographical areas affected by earthquakes or floods. The purpose of this initiative is to raise people’s awareness around the Carabinieri's achievements, highlighting their accomplishments to increase the understanding of Italy's historical heritage and the importance of its preservation.
The word patrimonio (heritage) comes from the Latin patris munus and means "gift of the father". A gift that must be defended and saved precisely because it represents a legacy for present and future generations. The defense of heritage is a sacred and ancient duty, intimately tied to the cult of the dead. As recently as 2019 Roberto Riccardo, a Carabinieri general, said, "To not love art in Italy equals to a crime: it is the premise to its destruction. To not defend art if you are Italian is to turn on your own history, to dishonor your father and mother."
