(13 January 2016) For “Museums in an armchair,” art historian Efi Ziv has chosen to bring to Haifa the “National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the Secret Cabinet.” The conference, promoted with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute, will be held Monday, January 18 at 10am at the Cultural Center of Beit Aba Hushi. The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is one of the first to be established in Europe in a monumental 17th century building between the late 18th and early 19th century. The museum boasts the richest and most valuable collection of works of art and archaeological artifacts in Italy. On display, there are more than 3.000 objects of exemplary value and more than 100.000 pieces dating from prehistory to late antiquity, collected from various ancient sites in the Italian South and via acquisition of important antiquarian collections (including the Farnese collection, which belonged to the Borbone family that founded the museum). “Secret Cabinet” is the name that the Bourbon king of Naples gave to the private rooms (in which “access was granted only to people of mature age and of known morality”) that housed the various erotic or sexual artifacts that came to light during the Pompeii and Herculaneum excavations. Over the centuries, the collection was called “Cabinet of reserved objects” as well as “obscene” or “pornographic”. After the Revolution of 1848, the Cabinet became a symbol of civil liberties and expression, then censured because considered politically dangerous. At some point, someone also suggested to destroy the artifacts, known at the time as “monuments of an infamous license” and “lascivious,” so as to preserve the good reputation of the royal family. However, the Director of the Museum compromised and closed the exhibit to the public. The censorship frenzy culminated in 1851, when the rooms were filled with statues of Aphrodite, considered obscene because depicted naked, and later sealed off and even walled in so that “all memory of their existence would fade away”. (Red)
