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Milano: “SalvArti”, from confiscations to public collections

great art exhibition

Milano: “SalvArti”, from confiscations to public collections

Royal Palace of Milano hosts a exhibition of great cultural and social importance which wants to underline and reaffirm, especially among the younger generations, the fundamental value of legality. From December 3, 2024 to January 26, 2025, in the halls of Royal Palace will be set up SalvArti. From confiscations to public collections, an exhibition that returns to the public a series of contemporary works of art, including paintings, graphics and sculptures by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Sironi, Lucio Fontana, Massimo Campigli, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Mario Schifano, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo and others, coming from confiscations made by the public authorities from organised crime.

Milano: "SalvArti", dalle confische alle collezioni pubbliche

The exhibition is part of the project Art for the culture of legality, edited by the General Directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture, the National Agency for Assets Seized and Confiscated from Organized Crime (ANBSC), the Municipality of Milano and the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior. The Milanese exhibition is the second stage of an itinerary which opened with an extraordinary preview, from 16 October to 21 November 2024 at the Hendrick Christian Andersen Museum in Rome, and which will close at the Palazzo della Cultura in Reggio Calabria, from 8 February to 27 April 2025.

Milano: "SalvArti", dalle confische alle collezioni pubbliche

In addition to presenting a cultural heritage that has remained largely inaccessible to the community, the initiative highlights the role and commitment of the institutions involved in the long and virtuous process that was necessary to recover them – among these, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the Guardia di Finanza – and to verify their authenticity and cultural interest.

The over 80 works that make up the exhibition itinerary, arranged chronologically and thematically, come from two different procedures. The first one arose from two cross-investigations, carried out by the ROS of the Carabinieri and by the Currency Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, for a large-scale tax fraud linked to an international money laundering network. The second is the result of a confiscation of an individual fully involved in the organized crime circuit and permanently involved in illicit economic activities.

Milano: "SalvArti", dalle confische alle collezioni pubbliche

The exhibition allows us to retrace the developments of art from the first half of the twentieth century to the early 2000s, in particular the evolution of expressive languages ​​and artistic trends of the time. Among these, one meets the Novecento group with Mario Sironi (Abstract composition – Urban scene with carriage, Multiplication II, first half of the 20th century), Metaphysics with authors such as Giorgio de Chirico (Piazza d'Italia, first half of the 20th century), and Carlo Carrà (Shack on the Shore, 1955), Sandro Chia's Transavanguardia (Bones Pit Case, 1990; Cupid, 1996), Enzo Cucchi (Highway of Thought, 1997), Mimmo Paladino and the New Roman School with Bruno Ceccobelli, Piero Pizzi Cannella, Gianni Dessì, Nunzio Di Stefano, together with experiences, such as geometric and informal abstraction, the mural art of Keith Haring (Kh mural, 1989), Christo's land art and the artist's book genre, such as Cantata Bluia Libro dore by Pier Paolo Calzolari.

Milano: "SalvArti", dalle confische alle collezioni pubbliche

Also on display are some sculptures: next to the small bronze of Arnaldo Pomodoro (Disco, 1986/2003), an artist of international fame for his monumental public art, more contemporary experiments are proposed, such as the works of Michael Savini (Anello, 2008; Coniglio, 2009) made with unusual materials such as chewing gum.

After the reviews of Milano and Reggio Calabria, the first group of works, coming from a confiscation that became definitive in 2018, will be delivered to various museum institutes of the MiC selected by the General Director of Museums Massimo Osanna throughout the country: a Milano (Brera Art Gallery – Citterio Palace), Rome (National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Civilizations and Central Institute for Graphics), Napoli (Castel Sant'Elmo and Museum of the Twentieth Century) and Cosenza (National Gallery of Cosenza).

The second group of 22 works will remain in Reggio Calabria, at the Palazzo della Cultura “P. Crupi”, where, since 2016, over 100 works of art have been permanently exhibited, all part of a single confiscation carried out by the Court of Reggio Calabria in 2015 and entrusted by the Regional Secretariat of the MiC for Calabria to the Metropolitan City.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Electa Editore..

Organizing Committee

General Directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture; ANBSC-National Agency for the administration and allocation of assets seized and confiscated from organised crime; Municipality of Milano – Department of Culture – Exhibitions and Scientific Museums Area; Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria – Palace of Culture “Pasquino Crupi”.

Scientific Committee

Andrea Viliani (director of the Museum of Civilizations, Ministry of Culture); Valeria Di Giuseppe Di Paolo (art historian official of the General Directorate of Museums, Ministry of Culture); Domenico Piraina (director of Culture and director of the Area of ​​Exhibitions and Scientific Museums, Municipality of Milano); Gianfranco Maraniello (director of the Modern and Contemporary Art Museums Area, Municipality of Milano); Domenico Michele Surace (Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Reggio Calabria).

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