MiBAC convenes committee on Jan. 9 to take stock of works stolen from Italy and ended up abroad

The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Alberto Bonisoli, has convened an institutional committee for Jan. 9 to take stock of works of art that have been stolen from Italy, in different contexts and historical periods and for different reasons, and that have ended up abroad, both in public and private collections. The committee will be attended by the Head of the Ministry’s Cabinet, Tiziana Coccoluto, Secretary General Giovanni Panebianco, and representatives from the Legislative Office, the Office of the Diplomatic Adviser, the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Command, the General Directorate of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, the General Directorate of Museums, as well as the General State Advocacy (and an adviser for international cultural relations, designated by the Minister).

“I have decided on the extraordinary convocation of the Committee, which I will personally chair,” said the Minister, “to examine in depth, punctually and organically the various issues that reflect complex and very delicate technical-legal and cultural diplomacy profiles for Italy. For this reason I am already in contact with my colleagues Bonafede and Moavero. The government is attentive and united on the affirmation of principles that are, before anything else, of ethics and legality.” The convening of the committee comes in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ’ s ruling that made final the immediately enforceable confiscation of the LisippoAthlete ordered by the Pesaro gip in June(Bonisoli let it be known that the Italian government has already taken steps to return the bronze sculpture from the 4th century B.C. to our country). “A ruling,” Bonisoli commented, “that shows how it is possible, despite long and articulated procedures, to recognize the right rights to be able to obtain the return of important works of national cultural heritage stolen from our country. This is what we intend to do, firmly, including through the Committee for the Recovery and Restitution of Cultural Property.”

MiBAC also let it be known that the meeting will also consider actions to bring back to Italy the Flower Vase by Jan van Huysum about which, at the beginning of the year, the director of the Uffizi, Eike D. Schmidt, drew attention by launching an appeal to Germany for its return: the work is in fact the legitimate property of Italy because it was stolen in 1944 by the Nazis, who took it away from the Pitti Palace, and is now in a private German collection. Eike D. Schmidt will attend the committee meeting on Jan. 9.

Pictured: theAthlete of Lysippus

MiBAC convenes committee on Jan. 9 to take stock of works stolen from Italy and ended up abroad

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