Vi segnalo un mio nuovo articolo su Al-Monitor, per il quale mi occupo di archeologia, mostre&musei, politiche culturali in Turchia (e ancora altri sono in preparazione).
Stavolta ho parlato di alcuni frammenti di mosaico, illegalmente scavati ed esportati negli anni ’60 negli USA, che sono stati rocambolescamente identificati e dopo accese trattative restituiti.
LEGGI ANCHE: I mosaici di Zeugma
Provengono dalla città ellenistica e poi romana di Zeugma, sulle rive dell’Eufrate non lontano da Gaziantep: esattamente dallo stesso triclinio in cui venne rinvenuta la famosissima Menade diventata simbolo del museo dedicato ai mosaici di Zeugma a Gaziantep (251.000 visitatori nei primi 11 mesi dell’anno) e della città stessa.
Potete leggere l’articolo integrale sul sito di Al-Monitor, le foto del museo potete vederle in questo mio post – I mosaici di Zeugma – del 2016.
LEGGI ANCHE: Bagni in Turchia e mosaici sconci
“Every work of art is beautiful and meaningful in the place where it belongs.” In a statement that is also a political manifesto, Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy welcomed back 12 fragments of precious Roman-era mosaics on Dec. 8. at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. They were illegally excavated in the Hellenistic city of Zeugma in Southeastern Turkey and smuggled to the United States in the 1960s. “We will chase and bring back home all the cultural wealth that have been pillaged from this geography,” the minister said.
The fragments, about 50 by 50 centimeters (20 by 20 inches) each, depict theatrical masks, river birds and minor deities. They were identified by experts only a few years ago and recovered by Turkish authorities through an agreement with Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, which had acquired them in good faith.
[…]
LEGGI ANCHE: I mosaici romani di Germanicia Caesarea
The museum’s best known piece, “The Gypsy Girl,” is misnamed. Displayed alone in a darkened room suffused with soft music, hung on a wall like a painting, this piercing-eyed young maenad — an uninhibited follower of Dionysos, god of wine and ecstatic debaucheries — has become the symbol of the museum and of Gaziantep itself.
[…]
The bit of mosaic floor was found under a broken column in the middle of the dining room of the famous House of the Maenads in Zeugma. Not much else remained, as most of the mosaic was apparently broken and removed by smugglers. The 12 fragments repatriated from the United States are just a portion of the missing pieces.
[…]