On a hot Summer day in 1972 Stefano Mariottini, close to the end of his vacation in Monasterace, decided to go snorkeling before returning to his regular life as a chemist in Rome. While diving 200 meters from the coast of Riace, at a depth of 6 to 8 meters, he suddenly thought he saw a dead human body. He got closer but as he touched the arm emerging from the sand, he realized it was made of bronze. He began to push the sand away from the rest of what he discovered to be an entire statue. He then noticed the presence of another bronze nearby and decided to call the police.
A week later, on August 21st, Statue B was taken out of the water. Two days later it was the turn of Statue A. News spread around the world. Nine years later these sculptured masterpieces, a pair of life size statues of naked Greek warriors, were exhibited for the first time in Calabria, where they soon became the major attraction at the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria. These two beautiful statues, amazingly preserved considering they are around 2500 years old, are kept in a perfect humidity controlled environment to prevent any compromise to their mint condition.
Their singularity is due to the fact that very few Greek bronze statues have survived intact to the present day; among them, these bronzes are perhaps the most beautiful. Experts are not sure of the exact story that lies behind the Riace Bronzes. Many questions are still waiting for an answer and probably will never find one: who are their creators, who are those portrayed, where were they located in Antiquity and when? The mystery adds to their charm.
The most popular theory is that they were created by two separate Greek artists about 30 years apart around the 5th century BC. Statue A is estimated to have been made between the year 460 and 450 BC, while Statue B around 430 and 420 BC.
Some scientists believe that Statue A was the work of Myron, and that it portrays a warrior hero or god with a glorious look, conscious of his own beauty and power. Statue B is the creation of Alkamenes, a pupil of the legendary Phidias, and represents an older more mature warrior hero with a relaxed pose and a kind and gentle gaze.
Other theories say that the two nudes originally formed part of a votive group in a large sanctuary. It is conjectured that the bronze sculptures may represent Tydeus and Amphiaraus respectively, two warriors from the Seven Against Thebes monumental group in the polis of Argos. However, they may also be Athenian warriors from Delphi, part of the monument to the Marathon, or they may come from Olympia.
They must have arrived near the Italian shore during the Roman occupation when the bronzes were being transported to Rome as booty. A storm could have overtaken their ship, and so they were lost and left at the bottom of the sea for 2500 years until Stefano Mariottini found them.
Recently the President of the Lombardy region Roberto Maroni, and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi wrote to the Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini asking for the two statues to be shipped from Calabria to Milan to be exhibited in the Italian Pavilion at the next Universal Exposition, EXPO 2015, for six months. They estimated the ticket sales will return €5 million and offered a third of the proceeds to Calabria region.
Many experts are now debating on whether even the slightest movement could damage the 2,500 year-old-statues. It’s a controversial debate, considering their inestimable value.
According to Maroni and Sgarbi, the Riace Bronzes’ delicacy has been exaggerated over the years to keep them in Calabria, together with the tourism this generates. Meanwhile Franceschini has ordered an independent panel of experts to judge if the “trip” is too dangerous for the two Bronzes. But the main concern is that economic objectives are prevailing in a cultural policy with little regard for the welfare of the two Riace Bronzes.
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