HELP US RESTORE THE 4TH CENTURY ROMAN MOSAICS THROUGH A NEW FUNDRAISER
The Galleria Borghese is launching a new fundraising campaign of € 50,000 to restore three of the five mosaic panels from a Roman villa dating back to the imperial age, depicting scenes of hunting and gladiator fights.
The fundraising is one of the initiatives linked to the Art Bonus, thus allowing donors that make tax returns in italy, to have a tax credit equal to 65% of the amount donated, but from today it will be easier to donate thanks to the online platform, which simplifies payment transactions.
The Roman villa (320-330 AD) was discovered in 1834 in the Torrenova estate on the Via Casilina, owned by Prince Francesco Borghese Aldobrandini, who ordered the removal and transfer of the large floor mosaic to his Villa Borghese residence to decorate the floor of the entrance hall.
The restoration, preceded by physical investigations to define the state of conservation of the underlaying layers, and the technical methods employed in the laying of mosaic tiles, will have the objective of restoring unity both in terms of the medium, and of perception of the entire mosaic floor, that is an important example of historical restoration and reutilisation of ancient and modern mosaics in flooring contexts.
The conservative intervention will see the re-establishment of the cohesion and adhesion of the mosaic tiles to the preparatory layers and the restoration of the correct chromatic relationship between the elements, compromised by the substances applied in previous interventions that have now been altered.
In fact, still today there are problems of reading and interpreting the restorations carried out under the direction of Luigi Canina, the architect who was in charge of the excavation and identification of the most representative decorative sections.
The practice reflected the eighteenth-nineteenth century collection criteria, essentially aimed at recovering “beautiful” and representative objects; sacrificing, sometimes irreparably, the knowledge of the entire context of origin.
For any further information write to us at ga-bor.fundraising@cultura.gov.it, or visit the SUPPORT US page .