Il Tirreno Giornale(PISA, Italia, Tuesday 16 July 2002)
Il Tirreno Giornale|
In a gallery in Torino a capital by Biduino is offered but it is not certian that it is from the bell tower: appeal by the "Friends of Museums" A Private Entity Reserves a Bank Note to Acquire the Work PISA. A piece of the Tower of PIsa on sale ? It is not known for sure. It is certain that for years now, a gallery in Torino offers a rare beautiflu piece, a capital made by Biduino, one of the artists that worked in Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, noted as one of the seven wonder of the modern world. And it is a capital that could have been a part of the tower. The most credible experts on the matter have always expressed caution. All the most ancient monuments, it is known (the Partenone document]), are partial reconstructions of what they originally were. The original pieces survive, those that have been saved, are in the museums. What we admire, as in the Acropolis of Athens, is a copy, as stately, of what it was. Same for the tower, in the course of the centuries, parts have been replaced in the more important structural areas: what we today see, and that has been consolidated in a decade of work lately, is for the most part a bell tower of the 1800's. As the capitals flaked off - the experts say - they would have been replaced, but not with the same original figures. In fact, the 13th century capital on sale in Turin does not have an equal in the actual structure of the Tower, but this does not mean that it did not belong there. The historians of the Piasn art interrogated on the matter have never been certain: the only certainty is that the work belongs to Biduino and that it could be found in an other any part of the plaza, even in Cathedral. Who could tell in the absence of a certain documentation? To launch the alarm on the "profane" sale is Mauro Del Corso, president of the association Friends of the Pisan Museums and Monuments, for a long time attentive to the safeguard of the historical and artistic patrimony of the city. The Gallery in question is that of the Old Master Painters: the piece on sale is mentioned in a recent article in the Newspaper of the Art. The case, however, had been noted in other newspapers, many times, in the last years. The last notice is from the newspaper Sole 24 Ore. And also in Pisa the thing has been noted for decades. Of the case almost nobody, at this moment, wants to speak: the superintendent of new developments, even the Work of the Primaziale also. Officially therefore mouths are shut. But unofficially, it is known that a private body, having arranged financing with a credit institution, is in contact with the sellers for a possible acquisition, the same thing tried some twenty years ago, fruitlessly, by the Work of the Primaziale, that in the end, for various reasons, elected to abdicate. And the figure in discussion has many, too many, zeroes. An extensive file has been developed, the work of Pisan experts and students. According to the art students, the work is surely of Biduino but less surely belonged to the bell tower, it would have a certifiable value about at 250,000 euro, almost a half billion lire ($ 246,000 US). The prices discussed seem to be different. Del Corso observes that the capital, presumably of the XIII century, according to the magazine, would have been removed in the 1800's from the third story of the Tower. It represent the four evangelists, according to the classical iconography. But no copy of this sort of the capitals today adorns the bell tower, nothing new however. If the piece is authentic, observes Del Corso, it would be noted, that is recorded, in the documents of the superintendence. In this case, the experts have contacted Torino. The president finally asks that the Work of the Primaziale remain active to re-acquire the ownership and "to show that our institution is an attentive custodian of our patrimony". There is no rest for attention from spectators for the unusual sale. Who will be the fortunate buyer of a piece of the Tower? And in any case, will there be this sale and acquisition, or will everything vanish in a soap bubble as in the past? |
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