Expert committee to vet Riace Bronzes travel to Expo 2015

Recommendation to be made by mid-October

(ANSA) - Rome, September 8 - Cultural Heritage Minister Dario Franceschini on Monday set up a committee of scientific experts to study what the impact would be if the ancient Riace bronze statues were moved north for Milan Expo 2015. The experts must deliver their verdict by the middle of October on whether it is safe for the statues to travel from Calabria in Italy’s deep South.

Head of the committee is Giuliano Volpe, a professor of archaeology at the university of Foggia. Last week, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said moving the ancient Greek warrior statues for next year's Expo makes no sense. "Why move them when I should be taking visitors from Milan to Reggio?" said Renzi while speaking to Italian radio Rtl.

The prime minister said he was not generally hostile to the idea of moving works of art. The debate over the possible temporary transfer of the rare 2,500 year-old statues has been raging for weeks.

Art critic, polemicist and Expo cultural envoy Vittorio Sgarbi recently said the bronzes, jealously guarded by the Italian region of Calabria, should be at Milan Expo 2015 despite long-stated local resistance. Regional authorities have allowed the famed bronzes to tour the country just once, in 1981, to sold-out venues in Rome, Venice, and Milan, a tour in which the statues were seen by over one million people overall.