Full text of DOI:10.1111/1468-0033.00315

Heritage and `cultural assets'
Giovanni Pinna
Vast numbers of tourists from many coun- government, ministries and public
tries have visited Italy in recent years, and administration, the cultural and historical
they frequently found a surprise waiting inheritance of the Italian people is not
for them. Some of the most prestigious, referred to as patrimonio culturale
state-owned museums ± Uffizi, Brera, (cultural heritage), which would be a
Capodimonte, Naples Museum of Archae- perfectly correct term in the Italian lan-
ology or Villa Giulia Etruscan Museum of guage, but invariably as beni culturali,
Rome ± had a habit of imposing near- meaning `cultural goods or assets'. Words
impossible opening hours on the visitors. are never used haphazardly in a given
The museums were normally open to the language; and beni culturali is the precise
public an average of five hours a day reflection of a particular interpretation of
(from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.), and four hours on heritage and its social role. This inter-
public holidays (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.).
pretation is rooted in the policy that has
been followed by the Italian state since
Visitors were also surprised to see how the early days of national unity.
little these museums seemed to care about
their visitors. There was nowhere to sit Using the term `cultural assets' to desig-
down and rest or take refreshments, there nate cultural heritage essentially denotes
were no bookshops or boutiques to buy a three things: first, as I pointed out above,
museum guide or postcards showing the objects are not considered as an overall
most famous objects and paintings. And entity implied by the terms patrimoine
many of the attendants in these museums and heritage, but are taken individually;
showed no interest whatsoever when they second, the material aspect of the objects
came into contact with the public. Their is given prominence and their symbolic
indifferent attitude was all too often significance is hidden; and third, the
followed by very real acts of rudeness.
potential symbolic value is greatly dimi-
nished because cultural assets are not
These elements ± short opening hours, regarded as forming an overall entity, as is
lack of services, impolite staff ± are the case when the concepts of patrimoine
difficult for visitors to understand. After and heritage are chosen.
all, Italy is a country that promotes the
exploitation of its scenic and artistic This interpretation of the heritage as a
treasures in the name of the tourist trade. complex of individual `assets', almost
But foreign visitors would have been less entirely devoid of symbolic meaning, has
surprised had they been aware of the invariably been adopted by the cultural
interpretation that the Italian state has policies pursued by every Italian govern-
always given to the scientific objects, ment since the early days of unification.
works of art, historical documents and The same interpretation also underlies the
monuments which constitute Italian beni organization of the Italian museum struc-
culturali. This is a complex set of assets, ture, which is derived from these policies.
symbols and traditions which are referred
to in French and in English by the How could a country, which is so rich in
respective terms patrimoine and heritage. cultural, historical and social traditions,
In Italian, on the other hand, the heritage isolate its own heritage from its true
is not considered as a single entity, but is context and, by doing so, undermine its
broken down instead into component historical and social content, and focus
parts. In the official documents of the instead on the mere physical value of
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ISSN 1350-0775, Museum International (UNESCO, Paris), No. 210 (Vol. 53, No. 2, 2001)
ß UNESCO 2001
Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF (UK) and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148 (USA)

individual objects? The explanation is and emphasis was placed on heritage
simple. When Italy was first unified, the conservation, rather than on use by the
new national government set up a cultural citizens themselves. The emphasis on
policy that was designed to destroy the conservation was certainly
a positive
symbols of the former Italian states dating outcome of state policy, in that it led to
from the period before unification. At the the creation of conservation institutions of
same time, it sought to construct and an extremely high standard, such as the
disseminate other symbols, namely those Central Institute for the Restoration and
of a new nation.
Fashioning of Stone in Florence. On the
other hand, the negative outcome was an
While the state succeeded in getting rid of almost total absence of any kind of
symbols, they failed in the attempt to museum organization. However absurd
create new ones. By the destruction of the this might seem, in Italy the state mu-
symbols of the pre-unified states we do seums are not museums, but offices of the
not mean physical destruction, of course, `superintendencies', with no administra-
but rather the `de-symbolization' of the tive and financial autonomy, no authority
inheritance of the old states through a kind to manage their own administrative per-
of diaspora of cultural assets. In particular, sonnel and attendants and no scientific or
the art objects collected in the residences teaching role. The state's restrictive inter-
of the old ruling houses were moved pretation of `cultural assets' and `guaran-
elsewhere and management of the cultural tors of ownership' meant that museums
heritage was entrusted to the central became places where being open to the
government. This centralization was public was tolerated as
a minimum
effected by establishing, with a few excep- concession ± to the true owners of the
tions, state ownership rights over the public heritage themselves! It is a fact that
cultural heritage, and through stringent citizens are often regarded as a dangerous
control over the national territory. Thus a source of potential damage to valuable
network of peripheral government ad- objects.
ministration offices was created on prefec-
torial lines, with `superintendencies' Thus the impossible opening hours and
whose role was to safeguard the heritage, the lack of services which until recently
and authority not only over the objects has caused non-Italian visitors to our
belonging to the state but also over those museums to wonder. It also helps us to
which were not in state hands. This understand the museographic layout of
centralized management resulted in the many state museums, especially the Mu-
deliberate destruction of the symbolic and seums of Archaeology, which have sur-
cultural significance of the heritage of the vived as `museum-storehouses' (each
various Italian communities, and emphasis object being exhibited with its own inven-
was inevitably placed more on the material tory number, but with no explanatory
aspect of the objects, as distinct from their material) or `museum-necropolises' (strict-
signification in any historical context. This, ly scientific exhibitions without any civic
then, is how `heritage' was transformed context; a frozen representation of how
into `cultural assets'.
diggings are advancing in the course of
history).
This cultural policy produced two
separate outcomes. The ordinary citizens In the years immediately following the
were removed from their own heritage Second World War, this attitude to the
ß UNESCO 2001
63

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Italian state heritage underwent no the management of the state museums
substantial changes. Indeed, it seems (for years many museums outside the
rather to have been strengthened, as is state ambit had broken away from these
demonstrated by the persistence of the mummified museology practices and had
notion of `cultural assets' in the different already focused on cultural activities for
names adopted, after the fall of fascism, the public instead) soon turned into
by what had been the Ministry of Popular concentration on the economic rather
Culture. In the immediate post-war years, than cultural use of museums. Much atten-
after the abolition of the fascist ministry, tion was given to entrance fees, rights of
the Republic entrusted conservation of the reproduction and contracts for manage-
artistic and historical heritage to the ment of the new public services, such as
Ministry of Public Education. This con- bars, bookshops and teaching materials.
tinued until 1974, when the Ministry of As Italian state museums opened onto the
Cultural Assets and the Environment was outside world the idea of the `asset-object'
created in a what can only be termed a remained unchanged: the new services for
consecration of the separation of admini- the public were officially defined as `addi-
stration from public education. Later, this tional services', suggesting that they were
became the Ministry for Cultural and somehow secondary appendages to con-
Environmental Assets. Most recently, in servation, which still remained the main
1998, it was renamed the Ministry of function of the museum and was regarded
Cultural Assets and Activities. It was not as far more important than educational,
until 1998, therefore, that the idea seems productive and cultural actions, let alone
to have surfaced for the very first time that the wellbeing of visitors.
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a policy for the cultural heritage must not
only focus on `asset-objects' but also on This explains that much that goes on in
actions. However, what was regarded in Italian museology still takes as the focal
Italy as a real revolution in the manage- point of its action the individual physical
ment of `cultural assets' took place in 1993 object. The visitor is on the sidelines, and
with the adoption of the Ronchey laws this makes it difficult to create the relation-
(named for the minister who proposed ship between object and observer which,
them). A veritable revolution occurred in as is well known, informs the significance
the Italian museum system, brought about of heritage and makes it a source of
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were not simply regarded as state strong- roots of the objects it contains: first, when
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spaces for the first time. This revolution in of the cultural heritage.
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