Attend the completion ceremony of the restoration project of mural paintings in the basilica di Santa Croce

 In June 6th, the completion ceremony of the restoration project of mural paintings in basilica di Santa Croce was held at Parazzo Vecchio where is the town hall of Florence, Italy. The project is an international project in which a Japanese university formed collaboration with Italian Institutes on the restoration of art works for very first time. Kanazawa University launched the project in 2005 with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze (the Laboratory of Restoration in Florence, Italy) and the Opera di Santa Croce (the Saint Cross Basilica in Florence). In the ceremony, Shin-ichi Nakamura, the President of Kanazawa University and Takaharu Miyashita, the director of Research Center of Italian Mural Paintings were attended from Kanazawa University.
First of all, Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence made a complementary speech. He showed gratitude with saying “today, this completion of such a big collaboration project between Italy and Kanazawa University hold a special place in the pages of history.” Then, Stefania Fuscagni, President of Opera di Santa Croce, Padre Antonio di Marcantonio, and Cristina Acidini, Superintendent of Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze gave expressions of gratitude to Japan, respectively. After that, Takaharu Miyashita received “Giglio d’oro (Gold lily),” Shin-ichi Nakamura received “Fiorino d’argento (Silver Florin)” and Tetsuya Kuroda who is a donator of the project received “Chiavi della citta (Key of the city)” from Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence.
In the next day 7th, the ceremony was held in Santa Croce, and about 90 people involved in the project from Japan and Italy were attended. Masaharu Kono, Japan Ambassador and Ugo Righini, the representative of the Minister of Interior gave greetings. The movie to introduce “Kanazawa and Kanazawa University” and computer graphics animation movie based on the restored mural paintings “La Leggenda della Vera Croce (Tale of the Holy Cross)” were screened in Italian language and exploded into applause. These two movies are produced by Research Center of Italian Mural Paintings for this ceremony. Then, Shin-ichi Nakamura, Takaharu Miyashita and Tetsuya Kuroda received letters of appreciation and commemorative medals from Opera di Santa Croce and Franciscan.
Before the 7th ceremony, Shin-ichi Nakamura, Masaharu Kono, Japan Ambassador and some other people visited Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze and saw high-technology of restoration in their own eyes.
We, the Research Center of Italian Mural Paintings continue the project to restore the famous mural paintings “Stigmate di S. Francesco (Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata)” drawn by Giotto, and proceed the Japan Italy research project on medieval mural paintings in south Italy.

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