Restoring Italian Art

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31230, 30 November 1966, Page 18

Restoring Italian Art

The Italian culture and friendship societies of Wellington and Christchurch have together set up a committee to organise and gather money for Florence, where art treasures and municipal buildings were badly damaged in the recent floods.

“We are only a small society and we thought we would join Wellington,” said Mrs D. McMillan, the president of the Christchurch branch of the Dante Alighieri Society, yesterday. “I . . . request your aid and influence in helping to restore the art and historical treasures of Florence damaged in the recent floods in Tuscany,” wrote Mrs A. Bal-

lara, in a letter to “The Press” from the society in Wellington. “I am also echoing the appeal of the Florentine Council

to every country in the world to help it save these art works. “Our New Zealand newspapers and radio reported the flooding of the Po delta and the Arno, and told of the immediate damage,” she said. “But to follow later events and to learn the details of the efforts of the Florentines themselves and hundreds of foreign students and visitors who are working desperately and against time to save what can be saved, it is necessary to have access to on-the-spot reporting, in other words, to the Italian newspapers. “Because of this, in New Zealand we have not been aware of the desperately urgent work going forward in the basements of the Uffizi Gallery, of the National Library, in countless churches, monasteries, public and private museums, and of the immediate needs of the work of restoration.” Mrs Ballara said that it was a race against growing mould and damp-rot, for once either of these took hold of an art work it was lost. Even though art restorers were pouring into Florence, it would take 100 years to complete restoration with those now available. Money is being collected by the society, which has as its aims “the propagation and protection of Italian culture abroad.” Mrs Ballara said that money could be sent to Mr E. A. McMillan, the treasurer of the Dante Alighieri Society of Wellington, at 16C Murphy street, Wellington.