The Furnishings of the Italian Embassy in Warsaw. New Documentary Acquisitions

peer-reviewed article

Anna D'Agostino

anna.dagostino93@libero.it
Università degli Studi Roma Tre (Italy)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-8148

Abstract

The present essay, aimed at reconstructing the history of the works of art which furnish the Italian Embassy in Warsaw, originates from the study of archival documents from the STRP Fund (formerly the Technical Service of Patrimonial Reconnaissance) kept at the General Directorate of Archaeology Fine Arts and Landscape of the Ministry of Culture (MIC). The fund consists of the documentation, mostly unpublished, produced by the Technical Service, which was created in 1993 as a Commission, conceived by Minister Alberto Ronchey, with the aim of taking a census of cultural assets granted in external storage by state museums to entities in Italy and abroad, which in 1995 had been transformed into a Service reporting directly to the General Secretariat of the Ministry itself but was suspended in 2003. The last patrimonial reconnaissance was carried out at the Italian Embassy in Warsaw twenty-one years ago and since then no more checks have been done. Therefore, in addition to analyzing the history of the works of art chosen to furnish the Embassy since 1922, the essay updates the data and gives new interpretations on the events that, both before and after the 2nd World War, led to its furnishing; moreover, it is meant to be a food for thought regarding the protection of Italian artistic heritage which since the first decades of the last century until the present has been in external storage without due control.


Keywords:

art, embassy, Warsaw, Italy, furniture, cultural heritage, reconnaissance, research

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Published
2023-05-31

Cited by

D’Agostino, A. (2023). The Furnishings of the Italian Embassy in Warsaw. New Documentary Acquisitions. Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 85(1), 117–144. https://doi.org/10.36744/bhs.1340

Authors

Anna D'Agostino 
anna.dagostino93@libero.it
Università degli Studi Roma Tre Italy
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-8148

Anna D’Agostino obtained a master’s degree in Art History in 2019; her thesis on the furnishing of the Italian Embassy in Warsaw was written under the supervision of Prof. Enzo Borsellino in the Museology course of the Roma Tre University. In the same year, she graduated from the Alta Scuola di Roma Tre (ASTRE) with a thesis on the house museums of the city of Rome. In 2022, she obtained the II Level Biennial Master in “Experts in the evaluation and protection of cultural heritage” with a thesis on the external deposits of the Barberini Corsini National Galleries at churches and religious institutions. She has written some scholarly publications on various topics in art history.



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