ACS Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Roma
event
Wednesday 8 April 2015 ore 16:00 - 22:00

Monuments in war. Protection and damage 1939-1945

MAXXI Auditorium – free entrance

“Monuments in war” is intended to be an opportunity for the examination of the issues tackled in the exhibition “Architecture in Uniform”, focussing attention of the activities that superintendents, historians and academics in the early phases of the Second World War, the work of the Ministry of National Education which, from as early as the 1920s, adopted measures and devised mobilization plans with the objective of safeguarding the nation’s artistic heritage.
The issue of preventative protection, the measures and the techniques for safeguarding the monuments in the Italian cities of art, will be discussed.
The Focus will concentrate on the Monuments Officers, their relationships with the Italian superintendents, their intents and their duties.
Particularly significant examples of the measures that were adopted with regard to certain Italian monuments will be selected and compared with interventions in the rest of Europe.
The papers presented by the speakers will alternate with readings of passages from the superintendents’ war diaries.

Programme
15.30
Registration

16.00
Introduced by
Margherita Guccione Director MAXXI Architettura

ore 16.15
Carlotta Coccoli Università of Brescia
LThe preventative protection of monuments during the second world war

16.45
Reading from the war diaries: by Emilio Lavagnino “An artistic salvage”
Reader – Andrea Tidona

17.00
Ilaria Dagnini Brey Journalist and writer
The Monuments Officers and their work in Italy

17.30
Reading from the war diaries: by Frederick Hartt, “Florentine Art under Fire”
Reader – Andrea Tidona

17.45
Marta Nezzo University of Padua
Safeguarding monuments and works of art during the Great War: episodes and problems.

18.15
From the “Corriere della Sera” April 1915. Report on a visit to the bombed Reims cathedral with Gabriele D’Annunzio
Reader – Andrea Tidona

18.30
ISSUES AND COMPARISONS
Rossana Torlontano University of Chieti
“A heritage saved by its secrecy”
Ruggero Ranieri Lecturer in contemporary history
“Monuments men and their role in safeguarding artistic heritage at the local level: the case of Umbria”
Caterina Bon Director General education and research MiBACT
Mario Lolli Ghetti University of Camerino
“à la guerre comme à la guerre”

19.30
Public Debate

20.30
The Monuments Men movie screening

Four professional credits will be assigned to architects belonging to the Order of the Architects of Rome and Province.
Book here