Since July 2024, the library of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, defined by the gallery itself as “an indispensable place for those who wish to research and study the creative work of artists,” has been closed to the public for “urgent and unpostponable plant and regulatory upgrading work.” Same fate for Gnam’s archives, “1,500 linear meters of documents preserved in just 400 square meters,” as the Gallery’s website also states. These are 58 funds, often indispensable for those who deal with certain subjects, for work or personal interest. These urgent works, however, have not yet started. Not only that: reportedly, there is not even an executive project or timetable, and what is worse, as reported by the Fp Cgil union in February, the staff who were in charge of the library and archives have been moved elsewhere. It had never happened since World War II that the library was closed for so long. Partially different is the discourse on the archive, which has undergone a major development in the last years of Cristiana Collu’s leadership (2016-2022), thus becoming more central to the discipline than before. These are months of altered theses and lectures, procrastinated research, chaos and difficulties for students and non-students, as the University Council for Art History has already had occasion to denounce. What is happening, and how it could happen, we asked Claudia Palma, now retired, for 42 years at Gnam, until 2022, for 20 years director of the National Gallery’s archives. “Every new director has wanted to leave their mark on the Gallery. This is too much, though,” she recounts.
LB. In what ways do you leave your mark?
CP. You see, from what I’ve seen over decades, those who come in feel the need to make people forget what the previous director did. Always. Archives had been an important figure in Collu’s directorship, he had wanted to implement them: of 58 archival collections in the Gallery, 49 came under Collu, almost all of them donated. A work of dissemination, of study, was done, which I think is recognized by everyone, even by those who had criticized the former director for other reasons.
Mazzantini, the new director, has, in short, tried to make people forget the archives?
Unfortunately, however, she did not limit herself to that. First she tried to give them back. She started with those on free loan, such as the archives of Carla Lonzi, but also of Anton Giulio Bragaglia, the director and gallery owner who played a crucial role in Futurism. It went wrong for her, though; half of Bragaglia’s is donated, and you can’t share a fund. Lonzi’s, on the other hand, was withdrawn (today it is at the Basso Foundation, ed.), the heirs had no interest in keeping it in a place where it was not valued. But with the donated ones, well, nothing can be done.
Did he try to return the donated archives as well?
Yes, he asked the State Bar for an opinion, but the state cannot go against itself, they are armored contracts.
Let’s go back for a moment to July 2024: the archives and library close.
Yes, and they have not reopened since, and there is no work being done. There was talk about the presence of radon, but the restoration office, which is on the same floor, in the same rooms, is open. And those working in the libraries and archives have been moved.
However, there were no major protests.
I wouldn’t say that. There was the letter from Cunsta, the one from the unions, a petition on change.org that exceeded 2,000 signatures. Three members of the scientific committee resigned. But they are facing a rubber wall. The problem is very much felt, there are academics or technicians who are doing everything to get the documents stored there to those who need them, for theses or conferences. But only through informal ways, the offices no longer exist, it’s unbelievable. And then the donors have also organized themselves....
The donors?
More than a month ago, more than 35 of them sent a letter with a lawyer. It says in their donation contracts that public enjoyment must be guaranteed, but also that the former owners must have access to the fund, it must be enhanced, and that is not happening.
You feel a certain responsibility, on these donations.
I put my face on all the contracts. I convinced these people that the National Gallery was the best place to keep their archives. People who put their hearts into it when they donated.
Aren’t they rich families who have to somehow get rid of their house?
But no. There are galleries, artists and critics who donated the most precious things they had, families who donated the memories of their husbands, fathers or mothers. It is demeaning to think this way, dare I say even offensive. State property is state property.
Director Mazzantini asked, “What does an archive have to do with a museum?” Gnam is not the “emergency room” for every kind of cultural heritage."
Look, one only has to read Icom’s definition of a museum to know that the matter is far more complex than that. The library and archives are Palma Bucarelli’s idea; they have existed since the 1940s, but in nuce even earlier. There are letters from Fattori, from Corcos, etc. The spaces, in their current form, with design by Costantino Dardi, have existed since 1998. Well before the expansion of the archive under Collu’s direction. They are the scientific basis of the things we preserve.
Will they reopen?
I hope so, I hope someone will talk about it and take action. This is about defending the dignity of the state, even before allowing art historical research. Leaving aside any economic damage, which is not for me to calculate. These are pieces of my heart. I can no longer go to the Gallery, such is the pain of the work being thwarted.
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