The current director of the Italian archaeological site of Paestum, the German Gabriel Zuchtriegel, will take charge of the ancient city of Pompeii, classified by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini announced on Saturday. .
During a press conference at the Coliseum in Rome, the minister addressed his “
best wishes for success to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who leaves his extremely positive work in Paestum for an exciting mission: the most beautiful position in the world for an archaeologist
”.
“
Pompeii represents a renaissance, a model for all of Europe in the management of community funds.
A place where we have started to do research and archaeological excavations again
, ”he said, whereas a few years ago the site, victim of repeated collapses, had been threatened with being removed by the Unesco on the list of world heritage before a major project funded by Europe gives it a second wind.
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Gabriel Zuchtriegel, 39, had been running the Paestum site since 2015, located not far from Pompeii in the south of Naples.
"
I am happy to be able to run a place that is unique in the world,
" said this archaeologist trained in Rome, Berlin and Bonn, who succeeds Massimo Osanna, himself appointed head of all the museums managed by the Italian state.
3.9 million visitors in 2019
Gabriel Zuchtriegel has taught in Bonn, Matera, Naples and Salerno, in southern Italy, and is the author of numerous articles and books.
He is married and the father of two children.
Like most Italian cultural sites, Pompeii, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, has remained closed in recent months due to the Covid-19 pandemic and only reopened on January 18 .
In 2019, the site had welcomed more than 3.9 million visitors, making it the third most visited site in Italy after the Colosseum in Rome and the Uffizi Museum in Florence.
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The candidacy of Gabriel Zuchtriegel, who obtained Italian citizenship in July 2020, was selected after an international competition in which no less than 44 people participated, including ten foreigners.
In 2017, the Council of State, Italy's supreme administrative court, decided following an appeal that a foreigner could run the Colosseum Archaeological Park, confirming that foreigners could take charge of Italian museums.
The Uffizi Museum in Florence is thus currently managed by another German, Eike Schmidt.