RIACE BRONZES TO ROME

(ANSA) - Rome, October 1 - Two jealously guarded ancient Greek statues are to be allowed out of their Calabrian home for a one-off ''check-up'' in Rome.

The priceless 2,500-year-old Riace Bronzes will leave the Museo Nazionale di Reggio Calabria ahead of a museum revamp for the 150th anniversary of Italian unification in 2011, officials said Thursday.

They did not give a date for the departure of the iconic warriors, who are cherished as symbols of Calabria.

In 2004 the southern Italian region refused permission for them to travel to the Olympic Games in Athens.

Earlier this year it said No to Premier Silvio Berlusconi when he wanted to include them among ''Italian icons'' for July's Group of Eight summit.

They have only left Calabria once since they were discovered in the sea off Reggio almost 40 years ago - a round-Italy trip in 1981 that sold out venues in Rome, Florence and Milan. Calabrian Archeological Superintendent Simonetta Bonomi said their stay in Rome, for a ''conservative'' clean-up at the National Restoration Institute, would be ''as short as possible''.

Calabria has repeatedly refused permission for copies of the statues to be made, rejecting pleas for Italian promotional events worldwide and for the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa - its first refusal to Berlusconi.

In a citywide vote in 2003, the people of Reggio Calabria came out overwhelmingly against the ''cloning'' of the statues, which have been the Calabrian capital's biggest tourist draw since they were discovered in the sea 37 years ago.

However, a recent ruling by Italy's highest administrative tribunal, the Council of State, appeared to open the way for their long-feared reproduction.

The Bronzes were discovered in 1972 by a Roman holidaymaker scuba diving off the Calabrian coast and turned out to be one of Italy's most important archaeological finds in the last 100 years.

The statues are of two virile men, presumably warriors or gods, who possibly held lances and shields at one time. At around two metres, they are larger than life.

The 'older' man, known as Riace B, wears a helmet, while the 'younger' Riace A has nothing covering his rippling hair.

Both are naked.

Although the statues are cast in bronze, they feature silver lashes and teeth, copper red lips and nipples, and eyes made of ivory, limestone and a glass and amber paste.

Italy has the world's biggest trove of archeological treasures but the Riace Bronzes attracted particular attention. This was partly due to their exceptionally realistic rendering and partly to the general rarity of ancient bronze statues, which tended to be melted down and recycled.

Stefano Mariottini, the scuba diver who first spotted one of the statues some 300 meters off the coast and eight metres underwater, said the bronze was so realistic that he initially thought he'd found the remains of a corpse.

When they made their only tour in 1981 a million people came to see them and the pair were even featured on a commemorative postage stamp. Today the statues pull some 130,000 visitors every year to the Reggio Calabria museum.

They are superb, well worth a trip to see. The museum is goodish, but needs a revamp.
There is a urban myth that there were 3 statues taken from the sea.

Ah! The one that got away.......I haven't heard that one.

Let's hope and pray these lovely pieces do get back to Reggio and that Rome doesn't pull a British Museum on them.

They certainly are very famous. Just watched a documentary on the man who discovered them and. of course, the statues. I became even more intrigued, after hearing that the actual proportions of these works of art are indeed not life-like, and deliberately created to be different than the ordinary human being - physiology of the masculine torso.

In case anyone wants to read more on this.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riace_bronzes