Anfiteatro Andrzej Tomaszewski - Auditorium al Duomo Florence

He is an important personality, a theoretician of the theory of restoration and protection, an Italian.
Then another personality with a rather more complicated CV is Camillo Boito. Camillo Boito
who lived, who is a Venetian, who lived in the 19th century, he is the
first modern Italian philosopher of restoration, but because, because he ... , his father was Venetian,
his mother was Polish from Cracow. I have no idea how they met. Then he went to Venice with
his wife from Cracow. But he studied in Vienna: he spoke Polish, German, French, Italian and
Latin. He is a man who concerned himself with St Mark’s in Venice for many years; he wrote
several essays in the spirit of the theory of Riegl, of everybody, then... even before. So I think that
he, too, is a little overshadowed, a little neglected; I have spoken with certain Italian colleagues;
a monograph needs to be written.
Because we were asked, all the Boito brothers, one was a composer, his brother Camillo was an
art historian and so on, a conservator. I think that if we talk about the Theory of Restoration, we
also need to pay tribute to the Italians who have made such a major contribution, people such as
Cesare Brandi and as Camillo Boito. Because the other Italian personalities tended rather to be
architects, architects who..., they did not actually do anything, they constructed theory, but they
had the practice, the papers and the rules of the technical activities of restoration. And then Willy
and I also think that an important point on the agenda in Florence should be a plenary session to
discuss our future activities; because we have certain ideas and so forth, but we must say at once
to all of those who come: “we await proposals; what you find like those ... that we should study”.
Then there is also another thing that is not new: there are certain publications, including from the
last century, by people of different nationalities, who have thoughts where they are important
thoughts on theoretical problems published in the various languages; and we think, how can we
do this? Perhaps we should speak in Paris about producing a series of publications, of folders, all
entitled in English “the published theory of conservation” or something, where we will be able to
publish certain essays that have already been published, but in another language, even though in
English certain periodical editions that were not easy to find. Then a series of the ... also of important
essays; for instance, I consider it extremely important that Ronald Silva is the person who
put forward the proposal, because he worked hard for many years to create this so-called restoration
charter for Asia, which he has shown us; these are the things that have to be ... a collection of
this, most important, perhaps systematically published. Perhaps we must speak with the UNESCO
Director General to find a way of publishing this series, so it would have to be a UNESCO series,
but prepared by us,
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Brandi, Brandi is better known to people who concern themselves with museums because he wrote
first and foremost about the restoration of works of art, but in this book of his, too, there are two
chapters that talk about architecture in an eminently sensible way; there are the same principles,
so we must not afford different treatment to an objet d’art from the treatment we afford to an architectural
monument, because both of them have a material substance, they have a shape, they
have …
b) Video-recording of the Kronenberg Foundation
Memory Over Nationalities
(Transcription by Paolo Del Bianco)
The Kronenberg Foundation has kindly agreed to loan this film for the evening and for any occasion the Fondazione
Romualdo Del Bianco ®
or the Auditorium al Duomo may consider appropriate.
This recording was made by the Kronenberg Foundation during a ceremony in which Andrzej Tomaszewski received
an award in 2010.
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