From September 1st the San Domenico will be enriched with a new section dedicated to “The great donors”. To reorganize the library services within Palazzo Romagnoli and allow the recovery of Palazzo del Merenda, linked to the timing of the Pnrr funds, the three donations Raniero Paulucci di Calboli, with the Wildt collection, Arturo and Ada Righini, with the Morandi collection and the Giuseppe Verzocchi collection, will temporarily move from Palazzo Romagnoli to the prestigious headquarters of the Civic Museum of San Domenico, where the Giuseppe Pedriali donation is already on display. This was revealed by culture councilor Valerio Melandri who thus responds to the controversy raised by the centre-left mayoral candidate Graziano Rinaldini who pointed the finger at the temporary closure of Palazzo Romagnoli, calling it an “unreasonable choice”.
The works will be exhibited in spaces not currently used in the museum complex. «The Verzocchi collection – explains Melandri – produced a terrible result in terms of audiences in its current location both because it has been relocated but also because there is no space to hold temporary exhibitions that attract spectators. If we want to enhance it, we need to give it more space and hence the idea of bringing it to Palazzo Albertini with an exhibition that will be three times the size of the current one.”
Rinaldini did not mince words in attacking the choices made by the current council: «We learn with amazement and concern that the civic collections of Palazzo Romagnoli, in particular the Verzocchi collection, will no longer be open to visitors due to the “reorganization” operations – he said -. An unreasonable choice on the part of those who administer the cultural heritage and are moving in an unscrupulous way, as if the mandate given by the voters transferred ownership of the assets belonging to the entire city to those who govern. A choice that not only ignores but is in stark contrast to the requests expressed democratically by the citizens who expressed themselves with a petition that collected over a thousand signatures against the transfer of the Verzocchi collection to Palazzo Albertini. It is not acceptable to continue without discussion on projects that alter and prevent the usability of public heritage.” «The existing project to enhance Verzocchi was not explained to those who signed that petition – comments Melandri. I also remember that the move is linked to the works necessary to provide a library to the city and the only building that has the necessary load-bearing capacity for the library is Palazzo Romagnoli”. The museological project “The great donors” and the necessary operations have received approval from the competent Superintendencies. However, as regards the works in the “La grande Romagna” section of Palazzo Romagnoli, a large selection will be left on site and rearranged according to the scientific project “A museum in a library”. The exhibition will be enriched by new works from the deposits and will allow new reading paths, also valorising Romagna artists currently not exhibited. The exhibition will always be accessible during the library’s opening hours.
«With this operation – concludes Rinaldini – we fail to fulfill the obligation to valorise the heritage at the moment in which the induced activity connected to the presence of the great exhibition at the San Domenico Museums is nullified, starting what should more correctly be called “dismantling” of one of the museum attraction poles of our city. At the same time, the possibility for visitors to use and benefit from two museum locations instead of one, as provided for by the combined ticket, precisely at the moment of greatest influx is limited”.
