International Study conference - Exporting Works, Shaping a Style - The circulation of cultural heritage from Italy to foreign countries (18th century to present)

International Study Conference

Exporting Works, Shaping a Style

The circulation of cultural heritage from Italy to foreign countries (18th century to present)

Rome, Ministry of Culture, Giovanni Spadolini Hall, October 23-24, 2023

Italy has a long-standing relationship with the export of works of art and culture (from excavated pieces, sculptures, paintings and objects of applied art to manuscripts and illuminated manuscripts) and the associated attempt to prevent or at least control them.

The topic is rooted in history. History tells of a flow of works directed beyond the borders of the Peninsula, linked to a demand that became strong and persistent already during the Middle Ages. From the 15th century, the reverse side of the coin also developed: the political will to keep cultural heritage intact, which emerged first in Rome, gradually took on the forms of protective legislation in various capitals of the Peninsula. Echoes of the same topic reverberate today. Today sees Italy in seventh place in Europe in the export of cultural heritage, largely works of art or applied art, with a turnover of about one billion seven hundred million. A situation, a market that every day is measured by a protection regulation elaborated in an accomplished form in 1939 and then changed continuously, until the recent reform of 2022.

A key moment in the centuries-long story of the export of works of art and culture from Italy to foreign countries fell between 1880 and 1904. During that period, the young nation faced a substantial demand for objects, which came from both Europe and the rest of the world, led by the United States. In keeping with a laissez faire policy, several hundred thousand objects left the country, so to enrich museums, collections and libraries across the world. These phenenomena, concatenated and interconnected, explain, among other things, the blossoming of a new generation of art market operators. Interpreters of the Italian tradition but also up-to-date on the latest marketing and promotional tools, they overlapped with the previous local realities, sometimes replacing them, until they became another side of that broader phenomenon known as the 'Recovery of the Renaissance'.

The activity of some Italian centers is now quite clear. The converse applies to Rome. In 2015 the Central State Archives and the University of Teramo signed a project on the export of works of art from Italy's capital to the rest of the world. The project, supported by the Spezzaferro Foundation and titled "Exporting Works, Shaping a Style. Rome 1880-1904," resulted in the filing of more than 38,000 export licenses. The name and date of the conference start from this filing and the online publication of the related database.

On the other hand, knowledge of a large number of Italian centers still remains largely incomplete. What is perhaps more important: there is still a lack of a tissue of research, capable of accounting for the phenomenon on a national and international level, as well as of communicate it in modern terms. This kind of research, when completed will give the correct perspective to the passage from the artisan Peninsula of yesterday to the Made in Italy of today. The conference also reserves ample room for reflection on the actuality and future of art exports and related protection legislation, within a legislative context that naturally puts Italy at the center, but as an integral part of Europe and active in a globalized context.

The result of an agreement between the Central State Archives (Archivio Centrale dello Stato), the Antiquarian Association of Italy and the University of Teramo - Department of Communication Sciences, the conference boasts the support of the "Luigi Spezzaferro" ONLUS Foundation. Papers of the various scholars will be held on October 23 and 24, 2023, in Rome, in the Giovanni Spadolini Hall of the Ministry of Culture. The proceedings will be collected and published in a monographic issue of the journal "Predella. Journal of Visual Studies," Class A in the field of art history.

Organizing committee

Prof. Paolo Coen, University of Teramo

Prof. Andrea De Pasquale, Central State Archives

Dr. Alessandra Di Castro, Rome

Organizing secretary

Dr. Pier Ludovico Puddu, University of Teramo

Official languages

Italian, English, French

Email address

esportareopereplasmareunostile@gmail.com

Postal address.

International Study Conference "Exporting Works, Shaping a Style," c/o Prof. Paolo Coen, University of Teramo, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Via R. Balzarini, 64100, Teramo, TE

Official blog

esportareopere.blogspot.com