Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style.
Italy has donated a reconstructed Assyrian statue to Iraq in a gesture former culture minister Francesco Rutelli described as a “miracle” of Italian cultural diplomacy.
Constructed in the ninth century BC, the 5-meter-tall (16-foot) “Bull of Nimrud” was destroyed by ISIS fighters in 2015, before Italian artisans made a copy of the monument using 3D-printing technology. The replica, which was previously displayed at the Colosseum in Rome and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, has now been permanently relocated outside the entrance to the Basrah Museum in the Iraqi city of Basra.
“Italy is at the forefront of safeguarding cultural heritage because it is the soul of a nation and embodies its history,” Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s current culture minister, said in a statement read out at an inauguration ceremony at the museum attended by Italian and Iraqi officials on Tuesday. “It will therefore continue to make every effort to advance international collaboration in the field of cultural heritage protection and to work for the enhancement of the heritage of humanity.”
Rutelli, whose Associazione Incontro di Civiltà had spearheaded the plans to make the replica, meanwhile wrote on Facebook: “Here is a light, a precious Italian light.” He added that the donation was “a small miracle of Italian soft power, of our cultural diplomacy”.
The ancient city of Nimrud, near modern-day Mosul, was the magnificent capital of Ashurnasirpal II, the Assyrian king who constructed an enormous palace in the city decorated with bas reliefs and numerous “lamassu” (lion and winged-bull statues with bearded human heads). ISIS stormed the archaeological site in 2015 and destroyed precious artifacts with bulldozers and explosives. The “Bull of Nimrud,” which stood at the site and is a symbol of the Assyrian civilization, was among the destroyed monuments.
Following the attack, a team of experts led by restorer Nicola Salvioli studied photos and videos of the monument, allowing them to make a model in polystyrene. A 3D printer was then used to make a fiberglass copy that was covered with plastic substances mixed with stone dust to make it appear more authentic. The project was financed by the Associazione Incontro di Civiltà.
The bull was displayed at a 2016 exhibition at the Colosseum titled “Rinascere dalle distruzioni” (“Reborn from destruction”) alongside two other reconstructions: a portion of a ceiling of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, and the archive room of the royal palace at Ebla. The following year, it was relocated to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where it stood outside the entrance as “a symbol of the organization’s commitment to share history and transmit the values it carries to future generations”, UNESCO said.
The bull’s return to Iraq follows a high-profile restitution to the country in June, when Italy handed a tablet engraved with cuneiform text and the insignia of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, Ashurnasirpal II’s successor, to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid during a state visit to Italy. The circumstances surrounding the tablet’s arrival in Italy remain unclear.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style.