Antonio Paolucci has been the director of the Vatican Museums for nine years. For many years he has worked in Italian cultural heritage and has quite a name for himself.
The question I would like to pose to you within this heritage management module is
if, according to you, it is necessary to explain a piece of art to visitors and generally accompany them throughout their experience,
or, is it better to leave them free to experience the art as they would freely do?
Well first, to do this profession, that is, to be the director of this or any other museum, you need to have a certain
technical preparation, specifically you need to have read many books, studied many works of art,
you need to have dedicated your life to these things. Without such a technical know-how, you will not be able to do anything:
not research, not study, not even divulging, therefore you need to start from this obligatory background.
Afterwards we can tackle the issues that face being the director of a museum such as this, a museums which works, allow me to say,
industrially,
serving six million men and women each year, but even a director of a small town museum. They are things such as,
conserving the heritage that he or she has been entrusted with and conveying and teaching this culture on.
You see, a museum director, this museum's director, like, I repeat, any other museum director in the world has to know how to do two fundamental things.
The first is that his or her clients or customers are not only those that we see today,
those who are passing through the Museums' halls now,
but they are also the men and women that still have yet to be born. If I were the director of a grocery store,
I would not have this problem. My concern would be to supply today's women,
this morning's women with fresh mozzarella cheese and other fresh products,
but I, instead, have to think about the men and women who still have to be born. The second must of these museums' director and again, any
museum director in the world is to transmit the culture and heritage that he or she was entrusted with onto his or her successor, and to make sure that it is
in the same condition that it was when he or she originally received it, or even improving it in terms of conversation and value.
These are the two polar stars that guide someone who works in my profession.
Good, coming back to talking about the works of art that number in many here in the Vatican Museums;
The level of engagement a visitor has when he or she enters, for instance, there museums is important, and from the standpoint of the
museum director
is it better to concentrate on going into detail about the works of art themselves, that is building the relationships with the works of
art
or increase the mass's knowledge about the insides of these Museums;
because this is a is a kind of dualism that we continue to face: deepen or divulge knowledge? Now we are usually concerned with how many people enter a museum,
however, we should worry about how many people leave the museums remembering something and have learned something.
Here is where, as the Greeks called it, the technique of persuasion come into play.
How can you convince, persuade all of the levels, from kids on a school trip to the elder who have forgotten
the fundamentals of their culture? How can you speak to everyone at varying levels,
but all the while in a convincing way? This is the point.
The first technique is that of fascinating, striking awe and in a way moving. If I had to
talk about this sculpture for example, this Roman sculpture is a copy from the Greek original that depicts… who know what this
young man with something in his hand represents. Maybe you need to go back to third grade,
and maybe discuss Paris. You know Paris's story,
the one where he had to decide who was more beautiful, Venus, Minevra, or Juno;
and he, of course, chose Venus. The Greek sculptor with his Roman copy represented
this nice tenuti year old man who is holding an apple in his hand, it's the apple he'll give to Venus the Queen of Love,
The Goddess of Love. You see, you have to start to tell stories that come from mythology
or ancient fables, tales, and memories. The you have to tell why this is a beautiful sculpture.
What are the reasons for its seduction for its fascination? This can be done from those whose level is little informed
to those more expert who want to get closer to a works of art like this,
just like they would with archeological sites, pieces of literature, etc.
This is the fantastic duty of a director who want to satisfy, satisfy his or her clients, not today's usual sense
of just adding in bonus features or offers like coffee at a café; rather assuring that when they
leave the museum they remember something and have understood something. In my fifty year long profession, in museums throughout
Italy: Venice, Verona, Mantua, Florence's the Uffizi for twenty years, and now here, I've always thought like this and tried
to share these thoughts to my colleagues, those who worked in the same field, I know that they value this way of thinking like me.
Good, and on that note I would like to ask you one last question
which concerns the management mechanism in and of itself of a place as big as the Vatican Museums in the sense that you have to study managing
the museums, people say this way is better than that, some say a director with an academic background is better,
others humanistic, then there's the idea of a group of people managing;
the Vatican Museums' model calls for exactly this, a management team,
in that it has different well defined sectors; so with your fifty years of experience is this
a winning model in your opinion?
My conviction is steadfast that a museum director, first of all, has to be a specialist,
an art historian, an archeologist who knows and has professionally studied
the material which he or she talks about, then a museums director has to know how to govern the machine,
the museum with managerial methodologies and techniques.
I am lucky because here in the Vatican Museums I can practice my profession as a scholar and as someone who spreads knowledge of the arts and culture
because I know that next to me there are people such as Monsignor Paolo Nicolini,
who is an exceptional organizer both from a personal standpoint, to how he uses
and economically and otherwise the Museums' resources to grow. Therefore, my situation is perfect. I can do my profession and
he can do his. I do not know what could be better. Thank you so much Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums.
