Feature: Big effort to rescue cultural heritage in Italian region after massive quake

The place looked much like an ordinary hangar, or a warehouse, lost among many others in a featureless suburban area.

Yet, instead of raw materials or finished goods, it was filled with the most precious gems the region of Umbria has for centuries: paintings, statues, altarpieces, artefacts, wooden frames and crosses, reliquaries, and much more.

The three major earthquakes that have struck central Italy since late August, and especially the latest and strongest one on Oct. 30, with its epicentre near the ancient city of Norcia, forced authorities to face many emergencies.

They have to provide shelters for some 15,000 homeless people all across the region, restore basic public services, assess damages and needs of thousands of firms... and rescue cultural heritages which constitute the soul of this land, and a driving force of its economy.

"We are working hard, and yet with a deep sadness in our hearts," art historian Tiziana Biganti with Umbria Museums Centres told Xinhua, as she showed the first large room where art pieces were brought in after the earthquakes.

"We would rather work on restoring these pieces without so much destruction around us," she said.

More than 900 art pieces have been recovered in the facility as of Nov. 24, and experts would expect another full month of intense rescue work.

The activity was coordinated by the regional Archaeological, Arts, and Landscape Superintendence in cooperation with art professionals from the Culture Ministry, civil protection's technicians, firefighters -- who physically carry out the recovery -- and the Heritage Protection Unit of the Carabinieri police.

"We are rescuing all the art pieces from under the rubbles of the churches in Norcia, and of the whole Valnerina Valley around," superintendent Marica Mercalli told Xinhua.

"We retrieve artworks also from buildings still standing but deemed unsafe, to avoid any further damage in case of new collapses."

The Umbria region built the anti-seismic structure with European Union's (EU) funds after a major quake in 1997, specifically to store and protect its heritage in case of emergency. For the first time, it was being used for its original purpose.

Its exact whereabouts were to remain unknown for security reasons, according to the authorities.

"Our current priority is to collect all art works here as soon as possible, for they are at high risk of rapid decay due to the seismic events, the bad weather, and possible looting," the art historian said.

The facility was provided with big exhaust fans to keep temperature at 20 degrees and 55 percent of humidity, the best conditions for wooden artefacts that make the majority of the collection.

Each artwork would undergo a first cleaning, which enables it to be freed from the dust generated by the quake, and from a light white film of moisture that developed because of the rain after the earthquake.

Experts would then make a first evaluation of the damages, and classify each of them before storage. The real restoration phase would come after rescue activity is completed.

The 6.5-magnitude earthquake on Oct. 30 was the most powerful in Italy in 36 years, and badly affected, if not destroyed, many historic churches and buildings.

For example, the 13th-century Basilica of Saint Benedict, the very symbol of Norcia, now lies almost completely in ruins but for the facade; the bell tower of the cathedral of Santa Maria Argentea was severely damaged, as well as the Abbey of Sant'Eutizio near Preci, one of Italy's oldest monasteries dating back to the early sixth century.

Luckily, many treasures that have long beautified these places survived, some of them with surprising few scars.

"A good example is this large wooden altarpiece by Jacopo Siculo, dated back to 1541, whose recovery from the church of San Francis in Norcia has been extremely hard," the superintendent said.

"It is quite a miracle that it has remained almost intact, showing only a scratch in its left side."

The altarpiece is six meters long and three meters wide, weighs some 600 kg alone, and the whole structure 1,300 kg. It took three days just to detach it from the wall.

An opposite example was another altarpiece retrieved from St. Benedict Basilica, whose canvas lay on the floor with its bottom section badly torn and affected by humidity.

"It needs to rest and dry: and the slower the drying, the better," Mercalli explained.

Asked whether restoration was possible with such a large damage, the superintendent looked confident.

"We will bring them back... I dare not say as they were, because nothing returns to its original state after such disastrous events, but to 80-90 percent of the painted surface," she said.

Currently, rescue work was "at zero cost" because ministry's professionals, as well as firefighters and police, were involved, according to the expert.

However, the restoration phase will surely be very expensive, and an overall estimate was not yet possible, because every art piece would have to be evaluated.

The Italian government allocated 130 million euros (137.71 million U.S. dollars) funds, but they would serve to cover the whole reconstruction phase in all of the three quake-affected central regions.

"A positive fact is that many Italian public institutions and citizens volunteered to fund the restoration of art pieces," Mercalli stressed.

"Any kind of financial aid from Europe, and outside Europe, will be most welcome. We have so much to do." said Mercalli. Endit