Tomb Raiders and the Italian Art Squad

Tomb Raiders and the Italian Art Squad

In collaboration with
NYU Visual Arts Administration Art Book Series

Fiona Greenland, University of Virginia
Author of
Ruling Culture:
Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy
(2021, The University of Chicago Press)

in conversation with

Amy Whitaker, NYU Steinhardt

Introduced by Valentina Castellani, NYU Steinhardt

With the participation of students enrolled in the course
Cultural Diplomacy: Theory, History, and Practices

The episode will be broadcast on Casa’s Facebook Page and website

For this episode of Tutti a Casa! Valentina Castellani hosts a conversation between Amy Whitaker and the author of Ruling Culture, Fiona Greenland. Through much of its history, Italy was Europe’s heart of the arts, an artistic playground for foreign elites and powers who bought, sold, and sometimes plundered countless artworks and antiquities. This loss of artifacts looted by other nations once put Italy at an economic and political disadvantage compared with northern European states. Now, more than any other country, Italy asserts control over its cultural heritage through a famously effective art-crime squad that has been the inspiration of novels, movies, and tv shows. In its efforts to bring their cultural artifacts home, Italy has entered into legal battles against some of the world’s major museums, including the Getty, New York’s Metropolitan Museum, and the Louvre. It has turned heritage into patrimony capital—a powerful and controversial convergence of art, money, and politics.

In ENGLISH with ITALIAN subtitles.

Tutti a Casa! Live Chats About All Things Italian is the new radio-style, web-based talk show that Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò and the Department of Italian Studies at NYU are launching to bring into your homes the voices and flavors of live and entertaining talks around Italian matters that really matter: arts, movies, literature, politics, and a lot more.

This is our way to keep our community connected and continue to learn new things together in these times of challenge and pain, but also of opportunity. A new way to be together, and engaged on a common track of learning and discovery.