Il recupero e la manutenzione della Gipsoteca di scultura antica del Dipartimento Culture e Società dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo

The Department Cultures and Societies of the University of Palermo in Italy owns a collection of forty plaster casts of ancient sculpture, dating back to the age of the academic teaching of Antonino Salinas (1841- 1914). In the intentions of the great archaeologist of Palermo, the plaster cast collection was of unavoidable help to teach classical art, in line with the contemporary usages of the Italian and foreign Universities. In the following decades, as everywhere, the collection progressively ended up by losing its central position in the study of archaeology, according to the transformations and the developments of the discipline over the twentieth century. In the latest times, all the extant casts of the collection were recovered and studied, in order to re-establish the unity of the gallery. This was entirely reorganized and opened to the public with a new arrangement on February 27, 2018. Before reaching this important goal, it was necessary to proceed to a series of restorations and repairs, since many casts had suffered from the wear and tear of time. These essential operations were carried out by a team of professional restorers and students of the University of Palermo. The elaborate cleaning operations and the structural consolidations have given back their dignity to artefacts which had been suffering from heavy vandalisms for years, alternating to recurrent repaints or inadequate maintenance. The new arrangement of this academic plaster cast collection has therefore been a notable event: it has allowed, on the one hand, to recover a historic patrimony nearly forgotten so far; on the other hand, to start a path of reflection and research, in order to give back its original purpose to the collection of ancient sculpture.