Cultural Heritage Context
In Italy, the State, the Regions, the Metropolitan Areas, the Provinces and Municipalities ensure and sustain the conservation of the cultural heritage and foster its public enjoyment and enhancement. The main institution responsible for cultural heritage protection and enhancement is the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
Other public bodies, in carrying out their activities, ensure the conservation and the public enjoyment of their cultural heritage.
Private owners, possessors or holders of property belonging to the cultural heritage must ensure its conservation.
The cultural heritage consists of cultural property (immovable and movable things which present artistic, historical, archaeological, ethno-anthropological, archival and bibliographical interest) and landscape assets (buildings and areas which are the expression of historical, cultural, natural, morphological and aesthetic values of the land).
Cultural Heritage Governance and Policy
The Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBAC) seeks as its main goal, the protection and enhancement of Italian cultural heritage, to preserve the memory of the national community and its territory and to promote the development of culture.
MiBAC is organized into a General Secretariat, which coordinates 9 General Directorates, 17 Regional Directorates for cultural Heritage and the Landscape, 80 Superintendences concerning the archaeological, architectonical, artistic and ethno-anthropological heritage, 19 archival Superintendences, 101 Archives, 47 State Libraries, and more than 460 among museums, monuments, and archaeological sites.
Cultural Heritage Funding
MIUR has various funding instruments for research projects which are under its care. These instruments are funded through one main Fund named FIRST (Fund for Investments in Scientific and Technological Research) which includes 4 main sections: FAR (Fund for the Support of Research); FIRB (Fund for Investments in Applied Research); PRIN (Research Programmes of relevant National Interest); FAS (Fund for underdeveloped Areas). All those financial instruments are frequently employed to research and technologies for cultural heritage.
Also in the National Research Programme (PNR) currently in preparation, MIUR includes, as one of its main axis, the research applied to the field of Cultural Heritage, developed also in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MIBAC). That specific topic will be also included in the Strategy for the Internationalization of the Research of Italy (SIRit), to be also prepared from MIUR before the end of the year.
In terms of funding for research projects on cultural heritage at national and EU level, the Italian System shows a considerable value and has shown a positive trend in recent years. MiBAC invested € 96.474.403,97 euro in 2008, shared among research programs and research activities within institutional activities in the field of knowledge, preservation, restoration and enhancement of cultural heritage. MIUR has allocated in the period 2005-2007, 15 MEuro/year with a provision of the same amount for next year.
Following the example of other EU countries such as the UK, from 1997 the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finances (MEF) has supported the conservation of cultural heritage through the income of the national lotteries. The value of this funding, distributed on a regional basis, is about 500ML € for the period 2006/2009. In the structural funds for the period 2000/2006 the Italian Government have focused on research for cultural heritage the amount of 5ML € for the realization of a technological district for cultural heritage, based in the Calabria Region, and the same amount is established for the period 2007/2013.
The CNR Department of Cultural Heritage has a yearly budget of research project funding of 2,5 ML Euro.
ENEA has allocated on projects and technologies for Cultural Heritage more than 5 ML euro from 2006 to 2009.
Cultural Heritage Research
The Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), is organised into 12 General Directorates, including, in particular, the General Directorate for Internationalization of Research and the Directorate General for the Coordination and the development of research. The MIUR is also acting as a controller of a number of major scientific national organizations, including the National Research Council (CNR), one of the most important entities, nationally focused to the heritage preservation.
The CNR, is organised into 11 Thematic Departments, one of which is the Department of Cultural Heritage. This Department gathers together all CNR institutes working on cultural heritage with research teams focusing on various aspects of science and technology applied to the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, including basic and applied research.
The core of MiBAC in the field of research applied to the protection of cultural heritage is represented by the activities carried out by its three research institutes: the Central Institute for Restoration (Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione e il Restauro, ISCR); the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD); the Istituto Centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e librario (ICPAL).
Cultural Heritage Education and Outreach
In Italy the educational training of the professional figure of conservator (architect, archaeologist, art rhetorician, archivist)/ restorer (restorer and restorer collaborator) is changing.
Until now restorers were trained by the schools of the culture ministry of Italy (ISCR – OPD and ICPAL schools), art academies and by a huge number of private or regional professional schools.
Recent law (circ. 35 - august 2009) establishes that restorers must have a master degree in whole cycle (5 years – 300 CFU), the graduation can be carried out in: schools of ministry of culture (3 that will start again soon); university, observing the ministry requirements (at the moment only the Università degli Studi di Torino in collaboration with the Conservation and Restoration Centre “La Venaria Reale” have an authorized course); art academies, observing the ministry requirements (at the moment 12 master courses).
Besides the restorer professional figure, the law establishes a new professional: the restorer collaborator, that will be trained in professional schools.
Currently in Italy there are: 3 MIBAC Advanced Schools; 95 Universities, public or private: among them 56 Institutes offer advanced training in Restoration/Conservation; 44 Art Academies: among them 9 Institutes offer second cycle courses in Restoration; 21 Main Professional Schools
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written by Mario Micheli , January 28, 2010
Dear colleagues,
I would inform you about an event extremely serious for the italian culture.
The Central Institute for Restoration-ICR, recently renamed Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro -ISCR, at the end of next February 2010 will be forced to leave the historical premises of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, where it was founded 70 years ago.
The precipitous transferral of the Institute could compromise the forthcoming and opportune reopening of the Restoration School, and weaken the efficiency of the Institute’s technical-scientific structures, leading to its inevitable closure.
To stop this very serious process, which will be reflected negatively on the italian prestige in the field of the conservation, was activated an Open Letter to the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. The Open Letter has been registered on the website gopetition, at the following address:
http://www.gopetition.com/online/33441.html
Mario Micheli
OPEN LETTER TO GIORGIO NAPOLITANO, PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC, IN SUPPORT OF THE ISTITUTO SUPERIORE PER LA CONSERVAZIONE ED IL RESTAURO
Dear Mr President:
Next month, at the end of February 2010, the The Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (recently renamed Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro) will be forced to leave the historical premises where it was founded 70 years ago as a result of the final eviction order requested by the company who owns the building.
The ISCR is one of the most prestigious Italian institutions, a fundamental reference point for international conservation and for its modernisation process in the field of conservation since the 1939.
Without the Government’s intervention, the Institute will be transferred to temporary premises, due to the lack of an adequate currently-available alternative site.
The precipitous transferral of the Institute could compromise the forthcoming and opportune reopening of the Restoration School, and weaken the efficiency of the Institute’s technical-scientific structures, leading to its inevitable closure.
We would like to recall the extraordinary process that, in only two years, led to the creation of the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro proposed by Giulio Carlo Argan, with the support of the then-Minister of Education Giuseppe Bottai; recall the enactment of the law that provided for its creation, the preparation of the premises, and finally, the commencement of activities and international recognition at the end of the 1950s as a result of the work of its first director, Cesare Brandi. Today, we propose that the Institute be allowed to remain in its current premises for at least another two years.
In the meantime, we also request the planning and realisation of suitable new premises. Additionally, we also suggest that the portion of Palazzo Borgia currently occupied by the Institute be converted into a Historical Museum for Conservation, in order to preserve one of the most prestigious pages in Italian cultural history.
We now turn to you, Mr President, in your function as guarantor for cultural institutions, a role given to you by the Constitution, to intervene in favour of ISCR in order for this institution to continue its role in Italy and abroad.
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