Naples, contemporary art will save the Filangieri Museum from closure

The Filangieri Museum of Naples, works by contemporary artists

51 works by contemporary artists will be auctioned to save the Filangieri Museum from closing

When contemporary art saves part of a city's cultural heritage. It happens in Naples, al Gaetano Filangieri Civic Museum, located in via Duomo at number 288, inside the fifteenth-century Palazzo Como. The Museum houses a collection of about 3000 works and artistic objects belonging to the patron of the arts and collector Gaetano Filangieri, Prince of Satriano, who saved this palace from demolition by transforming it into the seat of his art collection in 1888.

Unfortunately, after Filangieri's death the museum and its works were abandoned and forgotten, and only in the 1948 the surviving works were restored and the gallery reopened in the seventies, only to be closed again in the nineties. Only in the 2012, after 13 years of closure, the Filangieri Museum reopened its doors to the public.

Interior of the Filangieri Museum of Naples with exhibited works

Some are enclosed within this suggestive Renaissance palace masterpieces of Neapolitan art from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, by artists like Francesco Solimena, Battistello Caracciolo, Giuseppe Ribera, Luca Giordano and Mattia Preti, but also majolica, porcelain, paintings, coins, lace, crib pastors and armor from Japan, China and Turkey, collected by Carlo Filangieri, father of Gaetano and minister of war under Francesco II di Borbone. It's still, a library and a historical archive which holds precious books, including the manuscripts of "Science of Legislation" and the famous correspondence between the illuminist philosopher Gaetano Filangieri, his grandfather, with Benjamin Franklin.

In short, a treasure of inestimable value that, as often happens, the Neapolitans themselves do not know or underestimate and that is often ignored even by tourist routes in the city.

To this sad destiny is added the fact that the Filangieri Museum currently in tragic economic conditions for the maintenance of the structure and personnel, and the risk of closure is constant, for the usual lack of funds for the cultural sector and of interest from the institutions.

That's why in the 2013 was born the non-profit association “Let's save the Filangieri Museum", chaired by Maria Piera Leonetti, who has in store a series of initiatives that will be held inside Palazzo Como to save the museum from the risk of closure and to give, obviously, the right visibility to the treasures enclosed within its walls.

One of these initiatives will call for funding 51 contemporary artists and their works which will be auctioned next Saturday November 16 2013 and whose proceeds will be invested in the maintenance of the museum rooms. Among the works donated to the Filangieri Museum those of Janis Kounellis, Mimmo Jodice, Dario Cusani, Fabio Mauri, Sandro Chia, Sante Monachesi.

The president of the association is enthusiastic Maria Piera Leonetti:

"We make an appeal to civil society: come and discover the museum: it is yours, it is the cultural heritage of the city. The idea came to us last April when the director of the museum, my brother Gianpaolo Leonetti, called the Neapolitans together for a last appeal: to give a concrete hand to save the Filangieri, or to close it permanently, returning the keys to the Municipality. But it would be a crime to deprive the city of this treasure "

Everyone will be able to participate in the event and, if they wish, become members of the association by contributing with an annual fee, in a real collective initiative that involves the community to save "the prince's treasure".

And, for anyone who wants to visit the museum and admire the works of art exhibited before the auction, the museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 9: 00 to 13: 30 and Sundays by reservation. Admission is 5 euros, reduced 2,50 euros.

Information and contacts: tel. 081 203175

Official site of Salviamo the Filangieri Museum

Photos | Filangieri Museum on Facebook

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Written by Valentina D'Andrea
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