Acquisition of Works of Art
Several works by contemporary Italian artists were recently purchased by the Senate.
On 1st August 2003, the statue "Italia" by Tokyo Imperial Prize winner Giuliano Vangi was unveiled in the former Garibaldi Hall, then renamed Italia Hall. The statue is a cylinder carved in a pink-painted tree trunk surmounted by the perfect oval of a female face framed by two ivory braids. Giuliano Vangi is also the author of a sculpture housed in the Senate Library at Palazzo della Minerva: a copper, bronze, white and gold nickel female figure whose downwards gaze, in the artist's interpretation, means disposition to silence and meditation.
Three works by Sandro Chia can be found in the Senate: "The Triumph of Reason" (painting, 2003), "Table Flanked by Two Angels" (iron sculpture, 2003) and, placed in the middle of the cloister of Palazzo della Minerva, a sculpture of a single-winged bronze angel raising a golden heart to the sky, meaning that freedom can only be achieved by mankind through unity and solidarity.
Other acquisitions include works made in 2003 by younger artists belonging to what is known as the Scicli Group: the paintings "Black and Blue" by Piero Guccione, "Saint George" by Giuseppe Colombo, "Light through a French Window Facing South" by Franco Polizzi, "Room of the Silver Wattle Flowers" by Sonia Alvarez, "Sicilian Landscape" by Salvatore Paolino, "Ecce Homo Fragment" by Franco Sarnari and the limestone sculpture "Tender Dolphin" by Carmelo Candiano.
More recent acquisitions are two views of Rome by Mauro Reggio: "Theatre of Marcellus" (2002) and "Twin Churches in Piazza del Popolo" (2002).
These purchases were made possible thanks to the generosity of private sponsors and the enthusiasm of the artists themselves, who charged fees much lower than market prices.
Moreover, the Senate has started a programme of preservation and restoration of its works of art: period and antique furniture, tapestries and frescos.