Scuderie del Quirinale hosts major exhibition on masterpieces saved from World War II

Opening from December 16, 2022 at the Scuderie del Quirinale is the major exhibition ARTE LIBERATA 1937-1947. Masterpieces Saved from the War, curated by Luigi Gallo and Raffaella Morselli and organized by the Scuderie del Quirinale in collaboration with the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, the ICCD-Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation, and the Archivio Luce-Cinecittà. Visible until April 10, 2023, the exhibition presents more than one hundred masterpieces saved during World War II, as well as an extensive documentary, photographic and sound panorama, brought together thanks to the collaboration of as many as forty museums and institutes.

The exhibition aims to be a tribute to the women and men who, in the wartime context, interpreted their profession under the banner of common interest, aware of the universality of the heritage to be saved.

At the center of the exhibition project is the action of so many Superintendents and officials of the Fine Arts Administration, often forcibly retired after refusing to join the Republic of Salò, who, aided by art historians and representatives of the Vatican hierarchies, became the interpreters of a great undertaking to safeguard the artistic-cultural heritage. Among them were Giulio Carlo Argan, Palma Bucarelli, Emilio Lavagnino, Vincenzo Moschini, Pasquale Rotondi, Fernanda Wittgens, Noemi Gabrielli, Aldo de Rinaldis, Bruno Molajoli, Francesco Arcangeli, Jole Bovio and Rodolfo Siviero, secret agent and future minister plenipotentiary in charge of restitution: people became aware of the threat hanging over works of art, taking sides on the front lines to prevent it, aware of the educational, identity and community value of art.

There are three main strands in the exhibition through which stories of high civic value are told. The first (Forced Exports and the Art Market) refers to the alteration suffered by the art market in the aftermath of the stipulation of the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936); in order to indulge the collecting cravings of Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, Fascist hierarchs favored allowing the transfer of important works of art, even under bond, such as the Lancellotti Disk (bound since 1909), a Roman copy of the famous bronze by Myron. The Discobolus is among the prominent works, along with masterpieces from the Contini Bonacossi collection in Florence.

The second core (Displacements and Shelters) kicks off in 1939, when, with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Education Minister Giuseppe Bottai put in place operations to secure the cultural heritage, resulting in a plan to move works of art. From here, many stories unfold: the relationships between Italian superintendents and the Vatican; the efforts of individual officials to inventory and hide cultural property in Lazio, Tuscany, Naples, Emilia and northern Italy; the key efforts of female curators, such as Fernanda Wittgens, Palma Bucarelli, Noemi Gabrielli, Jole Bovio and others; and the raid of the Jewish Library in Rome. Among the key figures in this section is Pasquale Rotondi, the young superintendent of the Marches who was charged with preparing a national depository and who secured masterpieces from Venice, Milan, Urbino and Rome in the deposits of Sassocorvaro and Carpegna, for a total of about ten thousand works under his custody.

The third and final strand (The End of the Conflict and Restitutions) considers the missions to recover and safeguard stolen works at the end of the war. Italian officials were joined by men from the"Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program" (MFAA), a task force composed of art professionals from thirteen different countries and organized by the Allies during World War II to protect cultural property and works of art in war zones.

With the end of the war, restitutions of property stolen by the Nazis began, with more than six thousand works found so far.

The exhibition is an opportunity to admire, for the first time brought together in the same place, works of the highest artistic value that fortunately survived: from Lancellotti’s Discobolo to Titian Vecellio ’s Danae to Guercino’s Santa Palazia, from Francesco Hayez ’s famous portraits of Alessandro Manzoni and Hans Holbein the Younger’s Henry VIII to numerous masterpieces housed in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino, such as Luca Signorelli’s Crucifixion, Federico Barocci’sImmaculate Conception and Piero della Francesca’s Madonna of Senigallia.

Also present are about one hundred and forty photographic reproductions and more than thirty historical documents, as well as more than twenty excerpts from period films; significant evidence of one of the most dramatic pages in the history of Italy.

From the experience of those art historians was born a new way of understanding the protection and enhancement of Cultural Heritage, starting with the founding of the current Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. Not only that, after World War II, Italian museography started one of the most prolific seasons for the valorization and popularization of Italy’s cultural capital: Italian museums became the field of experimentation of a permanent didactics addressed to all citizens, places of civic consciousness in relationship with the territory.

“It is an exhibition of stories. Stories of women, of men, of works of art protected, saved, lost and recovered,” said Mario De Simoni, president Scuderie del Quirinale. “The tale of wartime protection remains a warning about the risks to the artistic heritage, brought to safety by the interpreters of a true epic: their heroic deeds constitute an example of patriotism and sense of duty, testifying to the effectiveness of the action of an entire generation of state officials who saved Italy’s immense cultural heritage, offering it to subsequent generations.”

“Túche, the fate or destiny to which the ancient Greeks subjected the adventures of gods and men, is the noun that best suits the works brought together in this exhibition,” said curator Raffaella Morselli. “Each of them might not have been there anymore if someone had not worked for this or that to be packed, hidden, transported, saved. The resistance of historians and art historians, in what was the war of objects, was the key to determining the fortunes of Italy’s endangered heritage during World War II. This exhibition stitches together, for the first time, so many stories of individual workers animated by a strong civic consciousness, and transforms their singularities into a great collective epic of passion and commitment.”

“The exhibition tells the story of an epic feat of preservation carried out by women and men who believed in the ethical value of art and its role in our national identity; among them are state officials, representatives of the Vatican hierarchies, civilians and military personnel who, with courage and determination have made it possible to transmit to the present the immense, extremely delicate Italian cultural heritage,” added curator Luigi Gallo. “And this is fortunate, because without the past we would be without a future. This is testified by the actions of Pasquale Rotondi, the historic director of Palazzo Ducale, whom everyone in the Marche region remembers for the lucidity of his choices, the composure of his behavior, the depth of his culture. In his honor, the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche has collaborated on the exhibition with prestigious loans and important research and documentation work that testifies to the farsightedness of his tutelary action. The operation was also made possible thanks to the availability of the Civic and Diocesan Museums, as well as the collaboration of the Superintendencies.”

Also on the occasion of the exhibition LIBERATED ART 1937-1947. Masterpieces Saved from the War, the Scuderie del Quirinale will offer visitors, starting in January 2023, a rich program of collateral events: a series of lectures, coordinated by journalist Paolo Conti and organized at the Scuderie del Quirinale’s headquarters, aimed at delving into some of the peculiar aspects of the exhibition through the accounts of art historians, archaeologists, documentary filmmakers and the protagonists of the recovery of stolen works of art, such as the Monument Men and the Carabinieri Corps. The meetings will take participants through the story of the atmosphere, vivid memories and feelings that characterized the difficult war years.

The schedule of meetings is available at www.scuderiequirinale.it

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog published by Electa.

Image: Piero della Francesca, Madonna di Senigallia (c. 1474; oil and tempera on panel; Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche © MiC - Galleria Nazionale delle Marche). Photo by Claudio Ripalti

Scuderie del Quirinale hosts major exhibition on masterpieces saved from World War II

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