The patron’s collection. Carlo Bilotti Ruggia d’Aragona, heir and successor of a family of art and history enthusiasts, would like to donate to the Municipality an extraordinary collection of archaeological finds of various origins and workmanship of which he is the owner and custodian.
The collection is “restricted” because it is defined by decree from the Ministry of Culture of our country as of “exceptional historical and archaeological interest”.. Yes, because it contains “pieces” dating back to the third millennium before Christ – the so-called “Bronze Age – and then to the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries before Christ with black and red figurations linked to the Magna Graecia world and the Italic world of the Apulians, the the Campanians, the Sicilians. But the mass of finds also includes Etruscan and Phoenician traces, that is, of peoples who came into contact with Calabria.
«I would like to donate this heritage to Cosenza, the result of my family’s long research activity at auctions and then integrated with further finds over time. And I would like to do it for educational purposes because it could allow students to approach the ancient world considering that many finds depict the myths and heroes of distant eras. Myths and heroes that are studied on a regular basis, for example in high schools. Not only that: offering the public viewing of all this material would also allow them to relate to the uses, artistic productions and the entire ancient world.”
Looking at the finds in the collection one is left breathless: it’s true there are Persephone, Minerva and then Hercules, Hermes.
Read the complete article in the paper edition of Gazzetta del Sud – Messina
