Several articles on the destruction of the Arena Chapel and damages
to other sites are available at:
http://museum-security.org/artcrime.html
At the end of this message you can find two report that are not
yet available at the Museum Security Website:
- about bad restoration efforts of the late 60s.
- Looters pillage church art in Assisi
Ton Cremers
> Does anyone have more information on the destruction of the Arena
> Chapel in Assisi, Italy? The articles I read focused on the
> unfortunate loss of life, and only briefly mentioned the destruction
> of the frescoes. Please reply on-list if anyone has more information.
------------
Both reports are from the Times of London of September 30, 1997:
Damage at Assisi blamed on work in 1960s
FROM RICHARD OWEN
IN ROME
AS RESTORERS began the near-impossible task of piecing together
fragments of ruined frescoes at Assisi after last Friday's double
earthquake, art experts said that the ceiling of the great
13th-century basilica had collapsed because of structural repairs 30
years ago in which reinforced concrete was used instead of the
original wood.
There were also accusations that Italian seismologists knew that a
second earthquake was imminent after the first jolt but failed to
give an adequate warning.
The second, mid-morning earthquake, which measured 5.7 on the
Richter scale, caused most damage to the masterpieces by Giotto,
Cimabue, Cavallini and other painters who, in a condensed burst of
creativity over a period of 50 years at the end of the 13th century,
laid the foundations of later Western art.
Experts assessing the basilica after the ceiling in the upper church
collapsed, sending masonry crashing to the floor in clouds of dust,
confirmed that the earthquake had destroyed a fresco above the main
altar by Cimabue depicting the four evangelists and another
attributed to Giotto (but disputed) entitled The Doctors of the
Church.
One fresco definitely painted by Giotto showing St Francis and his
devoted disciple, St Clare (founder of the Poor Clares), is
disfigured by a jagged crack. But most of Giotto's 28 frescoes
depicting scenes from St Francis's life are intact, as is the
saint's tomb in the lower church.
The two earthquakes killed 11 people and left thousands homeless in
the hill towns and villages of Umbria and Marche (the Marches). Many
people said they were afraid to return to their homes after warnings
that there might be further earthquakes. "Assisi looks as if it was
hit by a bomb," said Antonio Paolucci, the former Minister of
Culture who has been asked to supervise the restoration effort,
dubbed Operation Giotto.
Professor Federico Zeri, Italy's foremost art historian, said that
during restoration of the basilica in the 1960s the great wooden
crossbeams holding up the roof had been replaced by reinforced
concrete. "That was madness," Professor Zeri said. Lorenzo de
Angelis, the architect who was in charge of the restoration at the
time, said that the decision to use cement had been taken after much
agonising on the ground that there was a greater danger from fire
than from earthquakes. Assisi had a history of destructive fires, he
said.
Professor Zeri said that the basilica had stood for 700 years
because the builders had used materials such as wood which were
better able to withstand earthquakes. James Beck, Professor of the
History of Art at Columbia University in New York, said he agreed
that reinforced concrete, fashionable in the 1960s, had "completely
altered the organic state of the basilica, making it lose its
elasticity".
Professor Beck said other buildings were at risk because they had
been similarly restored, including the great dome of Florence
cathedral designed by Brunelleschi.
"Italy has been wounded at its heart," the banner headline in
Corriere della Sera said. Giorgio Bartolini, Mayor of Assisi,
appealed to tourists not to come to the town. The centre has been
closed to traffic, with armed Carabinieri guarding the basilica.
Assisi residents noted that the earthquake had happened on St
Francis's birthday, September 26, and recalled that Brother Leo, one
of the first followers of St Francis, had pronounced an anathema on
the "sumptous edifice" of the basilica when work began in 1228,
arguing that it was contrary to the simple and spartan principles of
the saint. "Sooner or later it will fall down", the friar
prophesied, according to Father Marino Bigaroni, the Franciscan
librarian at Assisi.
The first earthquake struck in the small hours of Friday and the
second came while experts were examining the damage caused by the
first. The ceiling collapse killed two surveyors and two Franciscan
friars. The surveyors were buried yesterday and the Franciscans, one
of whom was a 24-year-old friar from Poland who had just arrived in
Assisi, will be buried today.
Antonella Brunacci, sister of Bruno Brunacci, one of the dead
surveyors, said that she was considering legal action on the ground
that the restorers "should never have been sent back into the
basilica when there was a clear danger of another earthquake". Enzo
Boschi, head of the National Institute of Geophysics, said that
seismologists had played down the risk of a second, more powerful
earthquake in order not to spread panic. There had been fears of an
earthquake to match those at Messina in 1908, which killed 100,000,
in Friuli in 1976, when 1,000 died, and in Irpinia in 1980, when the
death toll was 3,000.
Walter Veltroni, the Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister,
said state experts were checking some 1,200 important monuments of
historical value within a 20 mile radius of the epicentre of the
quakes to assess whether they had suffered any damage. Professor
Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister, said that the Government was
setting aside £300 million in aid and that it aimed to restore the
basilica in time for the millennium.
Experts from the British Museum and the Louvre have offered help.
Renato Funicello, a leading geophyscist, said that preventive action
should also be taken in Rome. He said much of ancient Rome within
the Aurelian walls lay on the Tiberine alluvium, which instead of
absorbing the impact of an earthquake would multiply its effect,
"bringing down the Colosseum".
The disaster at Assisi has revived soul-searching over Italy's
neglect of its art treasures. "We have masterpieces we do not
deserve," said Il Messaggero.
Signor Veltroni appealed last week to industry to provide funds for
Pompeii, which was "dying a second death" through neglect. Last
year, La Fenice opera theatre in Venice burnt down and the Baroque
cathedral at Noto in Sicily collapsed.
---------------------------
Looters pillage church art in Assisi
FROM RICHARD OWEN IN ROME
THE two Franciscan friars killed in Friday's Umbria quake were
buried at Assisi yesterday amid reports that pieces of damaged art
works, including a great 13th-century fresco by Cimabue destroyed in
the disaster, are being sold on the black market. The Pope, who has
expressed his "intense grief" over the tragedy, sent Cardinal Roger
Etchegaray of France - a leading candidate for the papal succession -
to preside over the funeral of Father Angelo Api, 48, and Borowec
Zazislaw, a 24-year-old novice from Poland who had only been in Assisi
for a few days. The two friars were crushed by masonry when a second
earthquake struck Assisi last Friday morning while they were examining
damage in the Basilica of Saint Francis caused by the first earthquake
during the night. Two art surveyors employed by the office of the
Umbria Superintendent of Fine Arts, Bruno Brunacci, 40, and Claudio
Bugiantella, 45, were also killed by rubble when the great vaulted
ceiling collapsed. They were buried on Sunday, amid claims by their
relatives that the authorities should not have allowed inspection
teams inside the basilica while there was a serious risk of a second
earthquake. The Italian Government has set aside $500 million (£312
million) for the relief effort in Umbria and Marche, and leading
fashion designers such as Armani, Ferre and Santo Versace have also
contributed substantial sums. Experts said it would be some weeks
before the true extent of the damage to the basilica was known. But
the Franciscans hope to reopen the lower church, which contains the
undamaged tomb of the saint, in time for celebrations of the feast day
of St Francis on Saturday. About 30,000 pilgrims are expected, and
police are planning intensive security measures. Antonio Paolucci, the
former Culture Minister who is overseeing the restoration, said
repairs to the upper church, where works by Giotto and Cimabue were
damaged, would take months. Police said they were concerned that
tourists were picking up rubble and fragments of ruined buildings as
souvenirs. All the churches have now been shut, with armed guards
placed on the doors and gates for fear of looting. Services are held
in the open. The police said thieves were attempting to profit from
the tragedy, and the going rate for a yellow-and-blue fragment of the
destroyed Cimabue fresco, The Four Evangelists, was said to be £200.
"It is being sold off like bits of the Berlin Wall," the Corriere
della Sera newspaper said. Giorgio Bartolini, the Mayor of Assisi,
said he had wanted to close the centre of the hilltop town to
visitors, but businesses had objected. About 80 per cent of Assisi's
revenue derives from tourism, and it is Italy's fourth most popular
destination after Rome, Venice and Florence. The 28 celebrated
frescoes by Giotto on the Life of St Francis are intact, although they
are covered in dust and the extent of any damage will not be known
until they are cleaned. Sixty square yards of frescoes in the nave
have been destroyed. Some are thought to be by the young Giotto. The
authorities have stepped up security to guard retrieved fragments.
Restorers, many of them volunteers, are using painstaking,
labour-intensive techniques similar to those used after the Second
World War in historic cities such as Padua. "It is a labour of love,"
Signor Paolucci said. "They are saving tiny painted fragments. But the
frescoes will never be the same again." Seismologists said the damage
would have been worse if the lower church had not absorbed the
vibrations. About 80 per cent of the housing in Assisi was damaged,
and 40 per cent of the housing in surrounding areas has been
evacuated. Thousands of local residents, many elderly, are continuing
to spend the chilly nights in temporary shelters. The homeless
bitterly complain that the world is more concerned about the Giotto
and Cimabue frescoes than about homeless human beings.
-----------------------------
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