Ancient civilisations of Basilicata' at the Acropolis Museum

(ANSAmed) - ROMA, 18 OTT - The exhibition 'Ancient Civilisations of Basilicata. Rediscovered Treasures. XI-VI centuries BC', which will be open to the public from today until 26 January 2025.
    Speakers included the Director General of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis, the Director General of Museums of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Massimo Osanna, the Deputy Director General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Filippo La Rosa, and the Director of the National Museums of Matera - Regional Directorate of National Museums Basilicata, Annamaria Mauro.
    In the evening, the same speakers took part in the exhibition's opening ceremony together with the Italian Ambassador to Greece, Paolo Cuculi, and - as evidence of the importance of the initiative - the Greek Minister of Culture himself, Lina Mendoni.
    The exhibition, curated by Massimo Osanna and Annamaria Mauro, aims to shed light, through archaeology, on a region at the southernmost tip of Italy, today's Basilicata, and on the ancient civilisations that between the end of the Bronze Age (11th century B.C.) and the 6th century B.C. inhabited its vast territory open to the Gulf of Taranto.
    It includes more than 300 finds from the collections of the National Museum of the Siritide, the National Archaeological Museum of Metaponto and the National Museums of Matera, most of which are kept in storage and therefore 'invisible' to the public until now.
    The exhibition is part of the project Il racconto della bellezza (The Tale of Beauty), born out of the collaboration between the Directorate General for Museums of the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which for over a year has been providing travelling exhibitions at Italian Cultural Institutes around the world. After the success of the stages in Hamburg, Warsaw and Budapest, the exhibition has been expanded in the number of exhibits on display and redesigned in its graphic layout, to land, thanks to a collaboration agreement and with the support of the Italian Embassy in Greece and the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, in the prestigious venue of the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
    The Director General of Museums of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Professor Massimo Osanna, says: "The exhibition tells of a space and an era characterised by the continuous osmosis and overlapping of cultural traits; it recounts a 'landscape of entanglement', in which relations between Greeks and local populations took on different forms depending on place and time, with instances of territorial occupation and violent clashes and others of more complex interaction. The extraordinary objects on display, most of which have been preserved in the deposits, belong to male trousseaus, but also and above all to female trousseaus that attest to the wealth and hegemonic role of the people of rank within their communities and reveal dynamics and interactions that are still entirely current and alive".
    The Deputy Director General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy and Central Director for the Promotion of Italian Culture and Language, Minister Plenipotentiary Filippo La Rosa, says: "We are pleased that the ambitious project The Tale of Beauty, which seals the collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, concludes its European journey in Athens, after the Italian Cultural Institutes of Hamburg, Warsaw and Budapest. The exhibition hosted between the Acropolis Museum and the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, represents a privileged instrument of cultural diplomacy - enhanced under the mandate of Minister Tajani - through the involvement of the main cultural actors of the city of Athens and the international public'.
    For her part, the Director of the National Museums of Matera, architect Annamaria Mauro, emphasises: 'The extraordinary objects on display belong to male and above all female trousseaus that attest to the wealth and hegemonic role of high-ranking personalities within their communities and reveal cultural contacts and trade exchanges with the trans-Adriatic, Tyrrhenian and Aegean areas. In particular, the focus is on the Oenotrians, an ancient Italic people living from the 9th to the 6th century B.C.'