Riace Bronzes Await New Home

News April 2, 2013

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(Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

REGGIO CALABRIA, ITALY—The restored Riace Bronzes, two full-sized sculptures of nude, bearded warriors discovered off the coast of Calabria in 1972, have been kept in temporary quarters at a regional government office for the past three years while Reggio Calabria’s National Archaeological Museum is under renovation. “I know it’s not nice seeing them horizontal, but we can’t stand them up again until they’re in their final placement in the museum,” said Simonetta Bonomi, Calabria’s archaeology superintendent. The fifth-century B.C. Greek bronzes may have been thrown from a ship traveling from Greece to Rome to lighten the load during a storm.

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