Riace Bronzes 'not unwell' - preliminary checkup results

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 18 - A few more months will be necessary before the final results of a checkup on the rare 2,500-year-old Riace Bronzes are released by restorers from the National Museum of Magna Grecia (MArRC) in Reggio Calabria, the Central Institute of Restoration (ICR) and the University of Genoa but the "bronzes are not unwell", ICR director Luigi Oliva said on Wednesday.
    "We have gathered a lot of data but we are confident that we will be able to sum up all the information within a few months and draft a report which can then be used both by the institute and the museum", he said, noting that the aim of conservation work was to "prevent more challenging interventions in the future".
    Important restoration work was carried out on the Riace Bronzes and the statues of Porticello - two bronzes from the 5th century BC recovered off the coast of Calabria in in 1969 - from 2009 and 2013.
    "It's an activity that allowed us to monitor the state of health of the Bronzes", said the director of MArRC, Fabrizio Sudano.
    "We care for these statues very much, for their identity value and for their uniqueness", he added, explaining that the restoration would also provide insight into whether the bronzes were being maintained in the right way.
    The two Riace bronze warriors - survivors of the lost world of Magna Graecia, the Hellenic civilisation that once flourished in today's southern Italy - were discovered by a diver off Calabria in 1972.
    Calabria has historically kept a tight grip on the much-loved statues which stand two metres tall and are an exceptionally realistic rendering of warriors or gods.
    Both are naked, with silver lashes and teeth, copper red lips and nipples, and eyes made of ivory, limestone, and a glass and amber paste.
    Regional authorities have allowed the famed bronzes to tour Italy in 1981 to sold-out venues in Rome, Venice, and Milan, exhibitions in which the statues were seen by over one million people overall. (ANSA).