Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, met today at the Farnesina with Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, to address several issues of common interest for the two Ministries and identify new potential areas of collaboration.
Also in light of the recent tragic attacks on Christian churches in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the two Ministers reaffirmed their joint commitment to protecting Christian communities abroad and their places of worship. Minister Tajani recalled the government’s will to make the most of existing instruments such as the “Christian Minorities Fund” to finance interventions in favour of Christian minorities persecuted in crisis areas. The Ministry of Culture will provide technical and scientific expertise in the restoration of cultural heritage. The Foreign Ministry, together with the Ministry of Culture, will organise an event dedicated to protecting cultural heritage with religious value, to reaffirm the commitment to respect places of worship, particularly in contexts of tension and conflict.
Both Ministers also reaffirmed their commitment to bring back to Italy the statue of the “Doriforo di Stabia”, created between 27 B.C. and 68 A.D. The competent Italian judicial authorities ascertained that the sculpture housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art was illegally stolen and exported abroad and therefore ordered its confiscation.
As part of the initiatives promoted by the Ministry of Culture to enhance the cultural heritage of Italian museum storage rooms, Ministers Tajani and Sangiuliano announced the start of a collaboration to organise exhibitions of “hidden treasures” abroad, thanks to the support of the network of Italian Embassies and Cultural Institutes. They also took stock of the implementation of the “Inter-Ministerial Working Group to improve the attractiveness, promotion and internationalisation of the Italian educational model”, called for by Minister Tajani upon acceptance of his office, so as to make the Italian educational model an ever more effective tool for Italy’s international projection and promotion, and increase Italy’s ability to attract top foreign talents – mainly from Africa – also through an ever more effective use of scholarships.
Ministers Tajani and Sangiuliano agreed to leverage Rome’s extraordinary cultural heritage to promote Rome’s EXPO 2030 candidacy.
The plan to create a “District of Contemporary Art” in Rome was also mentioned, which aims to create an open-air museum itinerary by networking the extraordinary set of buildings and monuments built in the 20th century in the area of the Farnesina and the Olympic Village.
Minister Tajani assured Minister Sangiuliano of the support of the Foreign Ministry and our diplomatic network for the organization in Rome of a major exhibition on Futurism, currently in the preliminary planning stage, which also exhibits masterpieces housed in various foreign museums.
Both Ministries will collaborate to organise initiatives abroad to celebrate in 2024 the 100th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s death and the 150th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s birth.
Finally, in the coming weeks, the two Ministers, together with Minister of Tourism Santanchè, will launch the “Roots Tourism” project, financed by the Ministry of Culture and implemented by the Foreign Ministry, which aims to promote the travelling back of Italian emigrants and people of Italian descent to their places of origin to rediscover their roots and to enhance the cultural heritage of our emigration abroad.
At the end of the meeting, Minister Sangiuliano visited the Foreign Ministry’s collection of contemporary artworks, known as the “Farnesina Collection”.
