Painted
from above the old lake on Ischia the small island
of Procida is directly in front in the foreground.
Monte di Procida and Cape Miseno at the western
entrance to the bay of Naples are across the
Procida strait.
Vesuvius is in the background, the Sorrentine
peninsula extends to the right and a bit of Capri
is on the far right.
(Sept. 15) The main port on the
island of Ischia has celebrated its 160th
anniversary. Ferdinand II
of Bourbon (Re Bomba —the
Bomber king!) decided to eliminate the narrow strip of
land that separated the natural crater lake known as
"the lake of baths" (image, above) and turn it all
into a sea-port. Work started in 1853 and the new port
was inaugurated on Sept. 17, 1854. The new port is
still the most important one on the island and has
been augmented, but not superseded, by other smaller
harbors on Ischia. It remains vital to the economy of
the island.
(Sept. 15)"Good
morning. Welcome to Culture Vultures.
We Deliver!" It seems to me that places and
museums are always lending stuff to other
places or museums. That's how you and I get
to see lots of stuff. Last year, for
example, some of the Treasures of San
Gennaro (also here) went from
Naples to Rome for a successful exhibit, and
travelling exhibits of items from Pompeii
have recently returned from the U.S. and
Great Britain. Now, however, there is a
hullabaloo rising over one of the most
celebrated works of Michelangelo da Merisi,
alias Caravaggio.
The work is entitled Sette opere di
Misericordia (The Seven Works/Acts of
Mercy) from 1607 (image, right). The
painting was made for, and is still housed
in, the church of Pio Monte della
Misericordia in Naples. It was meant
to be seven separate panels around the
church, but Caravaggio combined them into
one, which became the church's altarpiece.
The fuss is that
Milan is going to have an Expo 2015 (May
1-Oct 31), one the Catholic charitable
organization Caritas will
participate in. Caritas has requested that
the Seven Works of Mercy be loaned
to them for the duration of the Expo.
Neapolitan politicos are already
complaining. One said, “The next thing you
know, they'll want Mt. Vesuvius for their
exhibits!” It's not that Naples might not
get a work of art from up north in return.
That could wouldhappen
(maybe a Leonardo or two). It's not even
that “The Seven Works” is a permanent
fixture in the church where it resides. That
is a technical detail that was solved on
four separate occasions in the 20th century
when the Caravaggio work went on tour. No,
it's something else, says a journalist in il
Mattino. Loans of great works of art
are, indeed, great
publicity for the city, but maybe the
treasures of Naples have become too
popular. The nay-sayers don't like the idea
of Naples turning into a place where you can
simply order up a treasure instead of
actually coming to the city. Naples is very
rich in things to see but, at the same time,
stubbornly remains a very difficult place in
to see them in. Churches, monuments and even
entire streets are often closed, or on
strike or this, that and the other thing.
Putting The Seven Works on exhibit
elsewhere and having it meet with
overwhelming acclaim would remind people of
how sadly inept the city really is. Maybe
he's right. If you like The Seven Works,
wait till you see the Veiled
Christ or the Farnesi Collection!
Why travel to Pompei and find it closed when
you can wait for Pompeii to come to you? And
there's a great amphitheater in Pozzuoli!
Maybe even Vesuvius! (They can deliver
almost anything by drone these days!)
(Sept. 16)Rehearsal
rooms and lecture halls in disrepair,
old and out-of-tune instruments -- these are
some of the things that need to be taken
care of at the Naples "San Pietro a Maiella"Music
Conservatory, one of the oldest and most
prestigious in Italy. The students,
themselves, have issued an appeal, saying
"Some of the greatest names in music studied
here. It can't just end like this." Indeed,
if the facilities are not adequate, the
conservatory risks turning out unqualified
graduates. Unqualified to play and
unqualified to be music teachers (although
that is what they will do); you have thus
set in motion a downward spiral. That is
what one instructor meant when he spoke of a
"unstoppable decline." A city official is
not that gloomy about the situation,
however. He says, "The kids are right.
The situation at the conservatory is
intolerable, but by November, when the
academic year starts up, I guarantee that
the situation will have improved. I have
already spoken to the technical office for
the province of Naples and, if I have to,
I'll go to the Province Office of Public
Works." [relevant entries on the music
conservatory are here
and here.]
(Sept. 19)San
Gennaro. In spite of what it says
here about the Feast Day of San Gennaro, the
patron saint of the city of Naples, being
officially turned into a "floating holiday,"
the day is still, in the minds of all
Neapolitans, today, September 19. The
bureaucrats in Rome are just lucky that
today happens to be a Friday, so the
"floating" is already taken care of. It is
the day on which the faithful await the
"miracle" (see the above link to San
Gennaro). The day is celebrated not just in
Naples but in various Italian immigrant
communities in the world where there are a
substantial number of persons of Neapolitan
origin. (I'm guessing that even an immigrant
from Genoa living in Argentina, Australia or
the U.S., roots for Gennaro, as well, but
that is just my own personal speculation.)
(The image in this entry is of a large,
modern, bronze bust of San Gennaro by local
artist Lello Esposito. See this link.)
(Sept. 20)Fulvio De
Marinis
The two
paintings shown here are by local artist
Fulvio De Marinis, born in Naples in 1971.
He was a student of Augusto Perez at the
Naples Academy of Fine Arts where he studied
sculpture before dedicating himself to
painting. If he has a specialty, it is
driven by his fascination for the myths of
Naples. The painting at the right is
entitled The Nymph of Lake Averno;below is Hic habitat minotaurus.
There is an English translation of an
essay by Selene Salvi of Napoli Underground
(NUg) entitled, Fulvio De Marinis: The
Places of Myth plus a selection of 22
of his works on the NUg
website at this link. These two images
are low-resolution; the images on the NUg
site are larger and of higher resolution.
They are photos, however, of the original
paintings. The paintings, themselves, many
in galleries, are generally oil on
canvas.
update 2022: the NUg website referenced 4
lines above is off-line, defunct.
(Sept. 23) Papers have
announced the beginning of work on the
gardens in front of the cloister and church
of Santa Chiara as well as on the iconic
church belfry (pictured) at the
intersection of Via Benedetto Croce and Via
San Sebastiano. The gardens will be rebuilt
and will become a public park in the heart
of the historic center. The belfry is to be
returned to the state it was in before the
disastrous air-raid of August 1943. (See this link for
details.) That means you will once again be
able to climb to the top of the tower and
look down on the street called
“Spaccanapoli.” They say that all this will
be ready by April 2015. Optimistic, but a
good sign.
(Sept. 29) - The
island of Ischia is taking advantage
of the fact that much of the island
and surrounding waters are now part of
a marine protected area. It has always
been a place for sport diving and
snorkeling, and two groups, Ischia
Diving and The NEMO Association
("founded for the primary purpose of
presenting and spreading the culture
of the sea"—from
their published literature) have now
started offering introductory courses
in marine biology. The Ischia
Biodiving Weekend 2014 takes place on
Oct. 17, 18 & 19 and will meet at
Ischia Porto, the main harbor on the
island. (That's the port in the image
at the top of this page, though it now
no longer really looks like that!)
Their literature specifies that the
course is aimed at participants who
already have an entry-level open-water
diving certificate —that
is, beginning SCUBA. I don't know what
happens if you show up with just
snorkel and fins. They may take your
money and feed you to the fishes. (The image is the 49th
plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen
der Natur, 1904, showing
various sea anemones classified as
Actiniae, in the Cnidaria phylum.)
(Oct.
4)This looks like a good
idea. I had never heard of the
Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological
Tourism, but the XVII edition will be
running at the Archaeological Museum of Paestum from Oct.
30 through Nov 2. From its literature: "...an
international event... dedicated to
archaeological heritage... multimedia,
interactive and virtual technologies...
debate on cultural heritage and
tourism... a meeting place for
professional business persons, tour and
cultural operators and for travelers." There
will be 150 exhibitors from 20 foreign
Countries, 50 conferences and meetings,
and 300 speakers." I think this means that
if your nation has something to show off
(and they all do) this is a pretty
good place to pick up some tips on how to
build and operate a successful tourist
trade.
(Oct 7)Oh, NO!
Amid all the bad news, this may be the
worst, although it has generated some funny
comments. Milena Gabanelli is a journalist
and television host known in Italy as author
and anchorwoman of an investigative TV
program called Report currently
broadcast by the Italian public TV channel
Rai 3. The other evening she did a
hard-hitting, fact-finding (yes, all that!)
exposé on what's wrong with the way
they make pizza and why it causes cancer. A
long list: wrong oil, wrong cheeses, wrong
yeast, tomato sauce from China, and they
burn the crust —and that's just for
starters. The local papers are all over this
one, because here you're messing with one of
the three basic food groups of Naples (the
other two are cigarettes and cell phones).
No one has given up Neapolitan pizza as
result of the program, but someone suggested
that Report should next report on
the paranoia caused by Report.
(Oct 13)Justice -
blind? Maybe. Slow? Definitely.
It's not so much that the property search
and resolution of the claim lasted 80 years
(!) —ok, maybe that's part of it—
but the fact that the on-line report of the
case had so many comments, many with their
own horror stories, that the paper finally
disabled the comment page. The case in point
was one of those cases that ask “Who really
owns this piece of property right now?".
They used feudal sources going back to 1536
as well as Napoleonic law put in place under
Murat in Naples in
the early 1800s. The trick was to show
“continuous and uninterrupted possession” of
a piece of property first disputed in a suit
brought in June of 1934 in Caserta. I think
someone has now won and someone has lost,
but I'm not sure. The papers seemed more
fascinated than upset at how slowly the
wheels of justice grind. They took pride in
quoting German philosopher, Martin Heidegger
(1889-1976), who is supposed to have
said, “The paths that lead to truth and
those that lead to error are the same;
Italian justice is slow but it seldom makes
mistakes.” Really?!That's
ok. Heidegger was wrong about Hitler, too.
(Oct 15)Beauty or Truth. Neapolitan
sculpture of the late 1800s and early
1900s. That is the title
of a fascinating exhibit running from Oct 31
through Jan 31, 2015 in the exhibition hall
on the premises of the church of San Domenico Maggiore,
a remarkably easy place to get to in Naples,
which is all the better because this is a
good one! From the announcement: "This
exhibit is a unique chance to see all of the
masterpieces of sculpture of 18th century
Naples, an especially illustrious era for
Italian and European art...There are various
sections: itineraries covering sculpture of
the XIX century and early 1900s in Naples by
Angelini, Lista, Gemito,
Belliazzi, Amendola, Jerace, Palizzi,
Franceschi, d’Orsi, De Luca, Renda,
Cifariello, etc...) [and]...virtual
itineraries of unmovable monuments." There
will 250 works from galleries throughout
Italy. The image shown here is of the Roman
goddess Victa by Francesco Jerace
(1854-1937). He is one of the sculptors (as
are others on that list) who contributed to
the well-known series
of eight that line the west facade of
the royal Palace in Naples. He also did a
group statue called L'Azione
as part of the national monument to King
Victor Emanuel II in Rome. And the coolest one of all, a
huge sculpture of a brooding
Beethoven in the courtyard of the
Naples music conservatory. All three of
those would be part of a "virtual
itinerary," I imagine, since they cannot
be moved. (Of course, if you happen to
have an irresistible force around, you can
try to move anything.)
Just
got this spectacular shot from friend, Larry Ray. It
shows B-25s of the 340th Bomb Group over Mt.
Vesuvius during the eruption of March 23, 1944, the last
eruption of the volcano.
(October 25) Wherever the
mythical Elephant Graveyard is supposed to
be, it now has another resident. Restin
peace. Sabrina, the icon of the Naples zoo, a
56-year-old female elephant, also mentioned here
five-years ago when she was merely ill,
has died. Sabrina was the only elephant in
the zoo. Not exactly solitary confinement,
but for a social species such as the
elephant, it probably comes close. She
came to the zoo in 1986. Fifty-six is kind
of middle-aged for an elephant; maybe she
just got lonely. Or maybe it was the zoo.
I have not been back there in a while
because it was so depressing. Anyway, the
last word to John Donne: "Nature's
great masterpiece, an elephant; the only
harmless great thing." [related
zoo update, Nov.
2015]
Oct.
26 - Here are a couple of nice
etchings from a delightful book, Viaggiollamare) by F. Alvino published in 1845
by Iride, Naples. The engraver was Achille
Gigante (1823-1846), a member of an
important family of Neapolitan painters
and lithographers in the 1800s. Both
etchings are of places that don't stand
out today but are still there. The one on
the left is the Rovigliano Rock (the Rock
of Hercules) (main
entry here); on the right is the
Quisisana Palace (main
entry here). Both of them are seen
from the Castellammare side of the bay;
that is, at the beginning of the
Sorrentine peninsula. Naples is way off to
the left.
(Oct. 26) - And in
sports... There is a general entry in these
pages on the sports
stadiums in Naples. Recently, what
used to be the main football stadium (now
superseded by the San Paolo stadium) has
remained a very important facility for the
city. It is the Arturo Collana stadium. It
has been run by the city for the last 12
years and is "home" to 49 different youth
sports clubs —not
just football, but track and field and what
have you. For various reasons of political
hanky-panky the city has decided to put the
concession to run the stadium up for bids to
private companies. The mayor is against it;
it should be a public concern. In the
meantime, kids, go train somewhere else. Oh,
the board of health has closed the Scandone
swimming pool in Fuorigrotta. It is one of
two Olympic-size pools in the area (the other
is on the grounds of the Mostra d'Oltremare)
and serves as the training facility for all
competitive swimmers in Naples. The health
guys checked the water and...well, you know
how picky they can be. C'mon, what's a
few dead turtles in the water! (OK, I made
that up. I think.)
(Oct.27) - All, or
almost all, of the sacred treasures of
Angevin Naples are on display for the first
time at a single exhibit in the Museum of
the Treasure of San Gennaro. The exhibit
runs through December 31. The museum,
itself, is relatively new, having opened ten
years ago (main entry
here). It is housed adjacent (on the
south) to the Duomo (cathedral) of Naples
and is not to be confused with the
similar-sounding Chapel of the
Treasure of San Gennaro inside the
cathedral, itself. Each item on display in
this particular exhibit has to do with a
precise period in the history Naples between
1266 and 1380 (and some even earlier). Among
them, the shrine to Saint Lawrence, on loan
from the Louvre; and the jewel-encrusted
cross of the Norman adventurer, Robert of Hauteville
(from the Diocese Museum in Salerno) plus
many other items on loan from their "home"
museums.
(Sept. 15) "Good morning. Welcome to Culture Vultures. We Deliver!" It seems to me that places and museums are always lending stuff to other places or museums. That's how you and I get to see lots of stuff. Last year, for example, some of the Treasures of San Gennaro (also here) went from Naples to Rome for a successful exhibit, and travelling exhibits of items from Pompeii have recently returned from the U.S. and Great Britain. Now, however, there is a hullabaloo rising over one of the most celebrated works of Michelangelo da Merisi, alias Caravaggio. The work is entitled Sette opere di Misericordia (The Seven Works/Acts of Mercy) from 1607 (image, right). The painting was made for, and is still housed in, the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. It was meant to be seven separate panels around the church, but Caravaggio combined them into one, which became the church's altarpiece.
(Sept. 16) Rehearsal rooms and lecture halls in disrepair, old and out-of-tune instruments -- these are some of the things that need to be taken care of at the Naples "San Pietro a Maiella" Music Conservatory, one of the oldest and most prestigious in Italy. The students, themselves, have issued an appeal, saying "Some of the greatest names in music studied here. It can't just end like this." Indeed, if the facilities are not adequate, the conservatory risks turning out unqualified graduates. Unqualified to play and unqualified to be music teachers (although that is what they will do); you have thus set in motion a downward spiral. That is what one instructor meant when he spoke of a "unstoppable decline." A city official is not that gloomy about the situation, however. He says, "The kids are right. The situation at the conservatory is intolerable, but by November, when the academic year starts up, I guarantee that the situation will have improved. I have already spoken to the technical office for the province of Naples and, if I have to, I'll go to the Province Office of Public Works." [relevant entries on the music conservatory are here and here.]
(Sept. 19) San Gennaro. In spite of what it says here about the Feast Day of San Gennaro, the patron saint of the city of Naples, being officially turned into a "floating holiday," the day is still, in the minds of all Neapolitans, today, September 19. The bureaucrats in Rome are just lucky that today happens to be a Friday, so the "floating" is already taken care of. It is the day on which the faithful await the "miracle" (see the above link to San Gennaro). The day is celebrated not just in Naples but in various Italian immigrant communities in the world where there are a substantial number of persons of Neapolitan origin. (I'm guessing that even an immigrant from Genoa living in Argentina, Australia or the U.S., roots for Gennaro, as well, but that is just my own personal speculation.) (The image in this entry is of a large, modern, bronze bust of San Gennaro by local artist Lello Esposito. See this link.)
The two paintings shown here are by local artist Fulvio De Marinis, born in Naples in 1971. He was a student of Augusto Perez at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts where he studied sculpture before dedicating himself to painting. If he has a specialty, it is driven by his fascination for the myths of Naples. The painting at the right is entitled The Nymph of Lake Averno; below is Hic habitat minotaurus. There is an English translation of an essay by Selene Salvi of Napoli Underground (NUg) entitled, Fulvio De Marinis: The Places of Myth plus a selection of 22 of his works on the NUg website at this link. These two images are low-resolution; the images on the NUg site are larger and of higher resolution. They are photos, however, of the original paintings. The paintings, themselves, many in galleries, are generally oil on canvas.
(Sept. 23) Papers have announced the beginning of work on the gardens in front of the cloister and church of Santa Chiara as well as on the iconic church belfry (pictured) at the intersection of Via Benedetto Croce and Via San Sebastiano. The gardens will be rebuilt and will become a public park in the heart of the historic center. The belfry is to be returned to the state it was in before the disastrous air-raid of August 1943. (See this link for details.) That means you will once again be able to climb to the top of the tower and look down on the street called “Spaccanapoli.” They say that all this will be ready by April 2015. Optimistic, but a good sign.
(Sept. 29) - The island of Ischia is taking advantage of the fact that much of the island and surrounding waters are now part of a marine protected area. It has always been a place for sport diving and snorkeling, and two groups, Ischia Diving and The NEMO Association ("founded for the primary purpose of presenting and spreading the culture of the sea"—from their published literature) have now started offering introductory courses in marine biology. The Ischia Biodiving Weekend 2014 takes place on Oct. 17, 18 & 19 and will meet at Ischia Porto, the main harbor on the island. (That's the port in the image at the top of this page, though it now no longer really looks like that!) Their literature specifies that the course is aimed at participants who already have an entry-level open-water diving certificate —that is, beginning SCUBA. I don't know what happens if you show up with just snorkel and fins. They may take your money and feed you to the fishes. (The image is the 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae, in the Cnidaria phylum.)
(Oct. 4) This looks like a good idea. I had never heard of the Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism, but the XVII edition will be running at the Archaeological Museum of Paestum from Oct. 30 through Nov 2. From its literature: "...an international event... dedicated to archaeological heritage... multimedia, interactive and virtual technologies... debate on cultural heritage and tourism... a meeting place for professional business persons, tour and cultural operators and for travelers." There will be 150 exhibitors from 20 foreign Countries, 50 conferences and meetings, and 300 speakers." I think this means that if your nation has something to show off (and they all do) this is a pretty good place to pick up some tips on how to build and operate a successful tourist trade.
(Oct 7) Oh, NO! Amid all the bad news, this may be the worst, although it has generated some funny comments. Milena Gabanelli is a journalist and television host known in Italy as author and anchorwoman of an investigative TV program called Report currently broadcast by the Italian public TV channel Rai 3. The other evening she did a hard-hitting, fact-finding (yes, all that!) exposé on what's wrong with the way they make pizza and why it causes cancer. A long list: wrong oil, wrong cheeses, wrong yeast, tomato sauce from China, and they burn the crust —and that's just for starters. The local papers are all over this one, because here you're messing with one of the three basic food groups of Naples (the other two are cigarettes and cell phones). No one has given up Neapolitan pizza as result of the program, but someone suggested that Report should next report on the paranoia caused by Report.
(Oct 13) Justice - blind? Maybe. Slow? Definitely. It's not so much that the property search and resolution of the claim lasted 80 years (!) —ok, maybe that's part of it— but the fact that the on-line report of the case had so many comments, many with their own horror stories, that the paper finally disabled the comment page. The case in point was one of those cases that ask “Who really owns this piece of property right now?". They used feudal sources going back to 1536 as well as Napoleonic law put in place under Murat in Naples in the early 1800s. The trick was to show “continuous and uninterrupted possession” of a piece of property first disputed in a suit brought in June of 1934 in Caserta. I think someone has now won and someone has lost, but I'm not sure. The papers seemed more fascinated than upset at how slowly the wheels of justice grind. They took pride in quoting German philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), who is supposed to have said, “The paths that lead to truth and those that lead to error are the same; Italian justice is slow but it seldom makes mistakes.” Really?! That's ok. Heidegger was wrong about Hitler, too.
(Oct 15) Beauty or Truth. Neapolitan sculpture of the late 1800s and early 1900s. That is the title of a fascinating exhibit running from Oct 31 through Jan 31, 2015 in the exhibition hall on the premises of the church of San Domenico Maggiore, a remarkably easy place to get to in Naples, which is all the better because this is a good one! From the announcement: "This exhibit is a unique chance to see all of the masterpieces of sculpture of 18th century Naples, an especially illustrious era for Italian and European art...There are various sections: itineraries covering sculpture of the XIX century and early 1900s in Naples by Angelini, Lista, Gemito, Belliazzi, Amendola, Jerace, Palizzi, Franceschi, d’Orsi, De Luca, Renda, Cifariello, etc...) [and]...virtual itineraries of unmovable monuments." There will 250 works from galleries throughout Italy. The image shown here is of the Roman goddess Victa by Francesco Jerace (1854-1937). He is one of the sculptors (as are others on that list) who contributed to the well-known series of eight that line the west facade of the royal Palace in Naples. He also did a group statue called L'Azione as part of the national monument to King Victor Emanuel II in Rome. And the coolest one of all, a huge sculpture of a brooding Beethoven in the courtyard of the Naples music conservatory. All three of those would be part of a "virtual itinerary," I imagine, since they cannot be moved. (Of course, if you happen to have an irresistible force around, you can try to move anything.)
(October 25) Wherever the
mythical Elephant Graveyard is supposed to
be, it now has another resident. Restin
peace. Sabrina, the icon of the Naples zoo, a
56-year-old female elephant, also mentioned here
five-years ago when she was merely ill,
has died. Sabrina was the only elephant in
the zoo. Not exactly solitary confinement,
but for a social species such as the
elephant, it probably comes close. She
came to the zoo in 1986. Fifty-six is kind
of middle-aged for an elephant; maybe she
just got lonely. Or maybe it was the zoo.
I have not been back there in a while
because it was so depressing. Anyway, the
last word to John Donne: "Nature's
great masterpiece, an elephant; the only
harmless great thing." [related
zoo update, Nov.
2015]
(Oct. 26) - And in sports... There is a general entry in these pages on the sports stadiums in Naples. Recently, what used to be the main football stadium (now superseded by the San Paolo stadium) has remained a very important facility for the city. It is the Arturo Collana stadium. It has been run by the city for the last 12 years and is "home" to 49 different youth sports clubs —not just football, but track and field and what have you. For various reasons of political hanky-panky the city has decided to put the concession to run the stadium up for bids to private companies. The mayor is against it; it should be a public concern. In the meantime, kids, go train somewhere else. Oh, the board of health has closed the Scandone swimming pool in Fuorigrotta. It is one of two Olympic-size pools in the area (the other is on the grounds of the Mostra d'Oltremare) and serves as the training facility for all competitive swimmers in Naples. The health guys checked the water and...well, you know how picky they can be. C'mon, what's a few dead turtles in the water! (OK, I made that up. I think.)
(Oct.27) - All, or almost all, of the sacred treasures of Angevin Naples are on display for the first time at a single exhibit in the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro. The exhibit runs through December 31. The museum, itself, is relatively new, having opened ten years ago (main entry here). It is housed adjacent (on the south) to the Duomo (cathedral) of Naples and is not to be confused with the similar-sounding Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro inside the cathedral, itself. Each item on display in this particular exhibit has to do with a precise period in the history Naples between 1266 and 1380 (and some even earlier). Among them, the shrine to Saint Lawrence, on loan from the Louvre; and the jewel-encrusted cross of the Norman adventurer, Robert of Hauteville (from the Diocese Museum in Salerno) plus many other items on loan from their "home" museums.