ROME - "I come from France where the lockdown has been in effect for a week for the second wave of the pandemic. I expected it but first of all the health situation counts".
Stèphane Verger, new director of the National Roman Museum, comments on the closure of the museums announced by Minister Franceschini among the measures established to combat the spread of Covid-19.
"It is the doctors and those who have been dealing with the pandemic for six months who must give the indications - he explains to ANSA -. I do not have to say whether it is right or not. It is such an uncertain period. The reasonable thing is to follow the decisions taken. It is hoped that they are good decisions that will allow us to limit the infections. We must face together by looking at the moment when it will reopen with great joy for all ".
Verger, who just recently took over the leadership of the capital's museum with special autonomy, is obviously also disappointed by the postponement of the exhibition dedicated to Alberto Savinio which should have been inaugurated on 11 November but looks at the opportunities that can be exploited during lockdown.
"In museums in general and in the National Roman Museum in particular there is so much to do to rethink the collections, the exhibition routes, the restoration of the works. It will not be a lost period. Behind closed doors we continue to work and then we will will be able to show the result of this activity. Many of my colleagues think so ".
Exponent of the Scientific Council of the Louvre Museum, Stéphane Verger is full professor of archeology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.
Very close to Italy and Rome, he was among other things director of the Studies for Antiquity at the Ecole Francaise de Rome from 1999 to 2005, he conducted research in archaeological sites in Turkey, Albania and Basilicata.
In a delicate phase such as the one that is emerging these days, he explains, "a museum must be present on social networks, as has happened in recent months. We have inaugurated the new site that we will implement in the coming weeks with virtual visits, the intervention of specialists, presentations of works. Good things can come out of an evil, a new way of presenting collections, experimenting new paths ".
The director says he found a museum in good health thanks to the work done by Daniela Porro first and by Alfonsina Russo in the interim period.
"In addition to working on the internal reorganization - he adds - the closing period will also be dedicated to the collections kept in the warehouses and archives with the idea of opening this heritage. People should know that behind the National Roman Museum there is another museum equally rich and spectacular that you will have to show.
The time will come when we will finally be free to return to museums. "The museum as a place of education will have to complete the educational offer for visitors and schools at all levels to make people understand what history, archeology, and the world are all about. Roman and medieval in an innovative way thanks to new technologies and augmented reality. "The National Roman Museum - underlines Verger - must be at the center of research networks on collections and continue to open up to scientists working on this specific aspect, becoming a point of reference for this community of scholars.
Finally, we must build a network between the great museums of the Mediterranean area to tell how we conceive ancient Roman times today ".