The exhibition of bronze statues from ancient Greece in Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art has successfully attracted more than 165,000 visitors. The exhibition entitled “Power and Pathos”, which opened on Dec. 10 and closed yesterday, recorded an average of 1,700 visitors a day. On display were 50 rare bronze masterpieces from various countries around the world, over a third of them from Italian museums. The exhibition was coo-organised by Palazzo Strozzi and the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Tuscany, along with many other Italian museums like the Archaeological Museum of Naples, which provided in record time two extraordinary sculptures displayed for the first time outside of Europe: “The Runner” from Herculaneum’s Villa dei Papiri and “Pan” or “Dancing Faun” from the Casa del Fauno in Pompeii.
The Italian Embassy in Washington set up several events throughout the duration of the exhibition, from the publication of ad hoc catalogues on the ‘Italian’ masterpieces, targeted events, like the recent lecture by Gianfranco Adornato from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (with the support of the Italian Culture Institute), and the communication campaign through social media and the internet.
