› Pasquale Rotondi
For the love of art, he defied the SS and the Republic of Salò. To save Italian art treasures, he tricked the Nazis and risked his life. The hero of this fascinating story is Pasquale Rotondi. Born in 1909 in Arpino, he was an art scholar and Urbino’s Superintendent of fine art from 1939. The order had come from Rome for him to direct Operation Rescue. He faced the responsibility and the dangers involved in saving the works of art, with great courage. As a result, approximately 10,000 paintings and treasures which derived from the Marches region, Rome, Venice and Milan were saved.
› The man of great treasure
The rescue of this art patrimony is a result of large and small factors, and of dramatic ups and downs.After the conflict, he remained in Urbino up until 1949, then moved to Genoa where he was the Superintendent of fine art; from 1961 to 1973 he was the director at the Central Institute of Restoration. In 1973 he was the consultant to the Vatican for the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. Rotondi died in 1991 in Rome, at the age of 81 – only a few days before he was on a scaffold checking the work on the Universal Judgement.
The fortress
To protect the numerous and important works of extraordinary art, Rotondi wanted a safe and secure location, as he stressed in his memoirs: "The location had to be far from industrial centres, railways and military objectives…, had to offer, in its solid structure, the perfect capacity to sufficiently guarantee protection against possible air raids...". Numerous buildings were inspected and all of the necessary requirements "were perfectly matched by the 15th Century Fortress of Sassocorvaro and The Princes’ Palace in Carpegna". enlargement On the side: View of the dry-docked strut, on the south. Bottom, left: Arcades of the courtyard Bottom: Rocca Ubaldinesca (XVth century), by Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The choice however, fell on the Fortress of Sassocorvaro, which was considered "the safer shelter because of the impregnability of the location and the robustness of its outstanding walls". Besides this, its spacious and dry rooms guaranteed that the works of art would not incur any damage whilst within the refuge.