A gift from the gods at the Center for the Arts

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-A flatbed truck parked off Broadway last year held a mysterious elk sculpture encased in glass. It sat for months, intriguing commuters. Richard Anderson, former Editor of The Planet, called the phone number affixed to the casing and was connected to Gale Roberts, an unlikely Greco-Roman art expert born in Baggs, Wyo., raised in Worland and now living in Jackson.

A year prior, Roberts was offered the opportunity to invest in a collection of plaster moulds taken from priceless sculptures. The originals are currently found in the most famous museums in the world - The Louvre, Palazzo Medici, the Vatican, Palazzo Borghese and the National Archeological Museum of Naples. This investment grew into a passion after Roberts toured Italian collections for 17 days and was stirred by the significance and value of the original masterpieces and the history of the moulds.

At the end of the 19th century, Gennaro Chiurazzi started a foundry in a large
warehouse in Naples. In 1902, it became one of the few foundries granted permission by the Italian government to undertake the unorthodox technique of creating moulds from original marble works and creating bronze replicas painstakingly with a hammer and chisel.

During World War II, the foundry stopped producing, but remained active in a legal capacity. Eventually, the government decided to redevelop the property and auction the moulds. A Naples professor, Clemente Setaro, won the collection for 70,000 euros in 2000. Setaro found the 100-year old moulds in need of expensive restoration. During his search for an investor, Setaro met Roberts, and by the end of 2007, the two exhibited a collection in Las Vegas. At this time, Roberts contacted the Center for the Arts Executive Director Stephen Schultz about the pieces and last Tuesday a truck showed up - rather unexpectedly - with a delivery of life-size bronzes.

Roberts explained: “My mission is two-fold. I plan to build a mould museum in Naples to protect the moulds. Now they sit in a storage room exposed to the environment, drying out. It will be the only one in the world. We can’t bring them over here since they’re considered artifacts from Italy. The second is to build a Chiurazzi Garden in the United States to show the bronzes, with the help of Caroline Holmes [a historical garden expert and author]. I met her on the plane from London.” Additionally, Roberts plans on taking his pieces on tour to visit other arts centers, “using the Center for the Arts as a guinea pig.”

Roberts recently flew a prestigious New York art appraiser into Jackson who was impressed by the quality of the bronze and resin castings. This was not surprising to Roberts, who said, “This runs through [the artisans’] veins. These guys were about the art.” He also plans to fly in a foundry member from Italy to teach a weekend workshop and perhaps hold an auction for the Center for the Arts, to benefit the Center’s educational programs.

The Italian government completely shut down permission to take moulds, and these are more than 100 years old. The 600 artisans who worked at the turn of the century created 1500 moulds and produced about 200 of their own work - originals that comprised the greatest sculpture of that era. Roberts has no clue yet what lies in those moulds, but they may be available for a blind auction.

In the known collection are 650 pieces from Pompeii and Herculaneum, including, quite possibly the only mould of Michelangelo’s “Moses,” which is currently being cast in Naples, and a reduction of “Laocoön,” created by three Rhodes sculptures from first century A.D. The full scale cast will arrive from Las Vegas next week, a spectacular 2.5 meters tall. On display now is Donatello’s “David,” “Venus di Milo,” Giambologna’s “Mercury,” Bernini’s “Rape of Proserpine,” a reduction of “The Nike of Samothrace” from the Greek Hellenistic Period, a coffee table from Pompeii, and more. Many pieces have interesting histories, especially Michelangelo’s. Allegedly the foundry’s head of security was Jewish and hid within the mould of the “Moses” for three days during a Nazi raid.

Robert’s sculptures will be on display through May 5 at the Center for the Arts lobby, courtyard, and theatre, 240 South Glenwood. Call 734-8956 for more information.

Courtesy
Laocoön attributed to Agessandro of Rhodes, 1st century AD, original in the Vatican Museum. This reduction is about 50 cm high

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A gift from the gods at the Center for the Arts | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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