Gloria Oladipo “Priceless Roman mosaic spent 50 years as a coffee table in New York apartment” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/22/priceless-roman-mosaic-coffee-table-new-york-apartment
かつて羅馬皇帝カリギュラの船に使われていた古代羅馬のモザイクが紐育のアパートメントで半世紀に亙ってコーヒー・テーブルとして使われていたという話。古代大理石の専門家Dario Del Bufalo氏*1がCBSの60 Minutesで語った*2。
カリギュラは2隻の船を建造させ、羅馬近郊の湖に浮かべたが、船はカリギュラが暗殺されるとともに沈められてしまった。1930年代には、このモザイクを含む文物が引き揚げられ、湖畔の博物館に収蔵されたが、1944年にナチスが伊太利から撤退する際にこれらの文物の多くは焼き払われてしまった*3。Dario Del Bufalo氏が2013年に紐育で講演したとき、カリギュラの船に使われていたモザイクを持っているという女性と出会った。
ヘレン・フィオラッティさんにはこのモザイクのレプリカが改めて贈られるという。
She was Helen Fioratti, an art dealer and gallery owner. According to an interview she gave the New York Times in 2017, she and her husband, an Italian journalist, bought the mosaic from an Italian noble family in the 1960s. When it arrived in New York, the couple turned it into a coffee table.“It was an innocent purchase,” Fioratti told the Times. “It was our favorite thing and we had it for 45 years.”
The office of the Manhattan district attorney says evidence suggests the mosaic was stolen, possibly during the second world war. Returned to Italy, it went on display at the Museum of the Roman Ships*4 in Nemi in March this year*5.
*1:http://www.dariodelbufalo.it/ https://www.instagram.com/bufalod/
*2:See “Roman Emperor Caligula's coffee table” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roman-emperor-caligula-coffee-table-60-minutes-2021-11-21/
*3:See “Italian town seeks damages for Nazi destruction of Caligula's ships” https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/italian-town-seeks-damages-for-nazi-destruction-of-caligulas-ships.html
*4:https://comunedinemi.rm.gov.it/contenuti/11827/museo-navi
*5:See Paolo Santalucia and NIcole Winfield “Emperor’s mosaic displayed in Italy after stint as NYC table” https://apnews.com/article/emperor-caligula-mosaic-became-nyc-coffee-table-back-italy-90d7365d9562ed8bc79e23de84ba8655
