A Modigliani, a painting by Johann Carl Loth “Carlotto”, an eye cup (Kylix), attributed to Andokides’ painter, and pieces of the Mithras slaying the bull recovered two years ago, completing the quality sculpture are some of the artwork held at Palazzo Barberini. Today, in fact, in Rome, it was launched “The Carabinieri for Art and Legality”, “the largest exhibition ever organized” about the collection of masterpieces that were stolen, sometimes even disguised, but then recovered and made available to the public thanks to the Italian Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.
The exhibition comprises: Modigliani’s “Jeune femme attablée au café” which was stolen in ’95 in Paris and found just a few weeks ago in an auction; Johann Carl Loth (“Carlotto”)’s Bacchus with grapes and a wine cup, which ended up in a teleshopping; Andokides’ Kylix that just returned from Munich. A total of 210 pieces are on display until October 30. Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini said he hoped to bring the exhibit to “at least another city”.
The Italian Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage are a “treasure” admired accross the world. Alongside paintings, millennial sarcophagi, colored amphorae, frescoes from Pompeii and Paestum, the exhibition also tells the amazing operations of the Carabinieri experts and the terrible damages to cultural heritage and to the community caused by those who had stolen the art pieces.
In addition to the latest works brought back home, the exhibit inlcudes paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Guercino, Gauguin, a letter by Christopher Columbus discovered at the Library of Congress, 430 nuragic piecs, the Castellani collection of gold jewelry stolen from the National Etruscan Museum at Rome’s Villa Giulia. The paintings stolen from the Museum of Castelvecchio in Verona in 2015 and found in May in the island of Turunciuk, Ukraine, are to be returned and to join the collection as well.
Source: Italy UN [July 15, 2016]