The famed ancient Greek warrior
statues known as the Riace Bronzes, jealously guarded by the
southern Italian region of Calabria, will be at Milan Expo 2015
despite long-stated local resistance, art critic, polemicist and
Expo cultural envoy Vittorio Sgarbi said Wednesday.
He said the coup was the result of "very fruitful talks"
Wednesday with Calabria cultural pointman Mario Caligiuri".
Sgarbi has been lobbying hard for the statues' transfer
alongside Lombardy Governor Roberto Maroni.
The bronzes spent four years stuck in bureaucratic red tape
awaiting restoration and were returned for public display at
Reggio Calabria's national archeological museum in December
2013.
Calabria has historically kept a tight grip on the
much-loved statues since their discovery by a diver in 1972.
Regional authorities have allowed them to tour the country
just once, in 1981, to sold-out venues in Rome, Venice, and
Milan, a tour in which the statues were seen by over one million
people overall.
The 2,500-year-old exceedingly rare bronzes stand two
metres tall, and are an exceptionally realistic rendering of
warriors or gods.
Both are naked, with silver lashes and teeth, copper red
lips and nipples, and eyes made of ivory, limestone, and a glass
and amber paste.
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