Among the many deserves of the BIAF art fair in Florence one stands out, at least from the writer’s point of view. I am talking about the unique opportunity it offers to the public of engaging with the Italian ancient art system, for once entirely at disposal of every visitor in a single outstanding venue. Round tables, side events and meetings organized by the fair inside and outside the thick walls of Palazzo Corsini make experts, novices, and even those who are merely curious able to safely navigate the all sea of Italian antiques, which is often more complex, articulated and rich in opportunities than one might think.
Resuming the simple yet useful vademecum Vita d’antiquari (link), presented at the BIAF’s 2022 edition, one is immediately struck by the widespread distribution of antique dealers’ activities across the Peninsula, that should be regarded as a legacy of Italy’s historical fragmentation but also an opportunity for the antiquarian knowledge, that in our Country is not limited to a few urban centers. Today, it’s easy to see the deep connection between this profession and Italy’s historical and artistic heritage, its preservation, and its promotion.

Art historian Antonio Paolucci, a former Ministry of Culture who proudly embodied the institutional responsibility for preserving the Italian cultural heritage (with a final, glorious appendix as Director of the Vatican Museums), was always repeating what a personality such as Hungarian violinist Vilmos Tatrai envied him greatly. That is the possibility of interacting also with the private sector and the art market. While the press has often focused on misunderstandings and the all disputable imperfections of the art market, from sad reforms to boring taxation issues, perhaps too little has been written in recent years about the role of Italian antiquarianism in supporting of scholars, studies, and cultural heritage in general.

To have an idea, we should first and foremost look at all the essays, monographs, and catalogs expressing gratitude to individual antiquarians (or to the Associazione Antiquari d’Italia as a group). They supports important research platforms such as the Zeri Foundation and Nuovi Studi, associations as the Amici di Doccia, and countless significant restorations. Antiquarians serve on scientific committees of renowned museums, such as the Uffizi Galleries, with BIAF Secretary General Fabrizio Moretti; hold leading roles in the many Associations supporting the museums, like Carlo Orsi and Pietro Cantore, respectively at the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Galleria Estense in Modena; and oversee true gems of Italian museography, such as the Jewish Museum in Rome, chaired by Alessandra Di Castro, who also directed the museum, in a liberal form, from 2012 to 2017. Antiquarians have also created collections that have become museums. The Giovanni Pratesi Foundation in Figline Valdarno tells the story of a lifetime of collecting, the love for Tuscany, and its history, with the public opening of the collection and the splendid oratory that houses it, representing a subsidiary action to that of the State. As a distiguished Florentine policitician such as Piero Calamandrei would say: “The State is us.”
Restorations, recoveries, donations. Recent examples include Fabrizio Guidi Bruscoli’s gift of a work by the rare 17th-century Florentine artist Bartolomeo Salvestrini to the Uffizi, or the recovery, restoration, and donation of an altarpiece by Durante Alberti to the Sansepolcro Cathedral made by Eleonora and Bruno Botticelli, and Fabrizio Moretti. This partial overview of the contribution of Italian antiques to culture and heritage surely misses countless other episodes. Yet, one memorable gesture stands out: in 2017, Giancarlo Ciaroni, founder of Altomani & Sons, spotted at auction a small fragment cut from Federico Barocci’s altarpiece in the Cathedral of Urbino, the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Ciaroni immediately spoke with the Carabinieri and their database left no doubt. The fragment was recovered and the altarpiece restored, adding another happy chapter to the history of the relationship between Italian antiquarians and the national heritage protection.
30 October 2024