SAVE THE COLOSSEUM FROM THE COMMISSIONARY ADMINISTRATION!

The Colosseum faces it's greatest risk in it's long history: the special commissionary for the safeguard of the archeological sites in Rome, Architect Roberto Cecchi, has decided to entrust the restoration of the monument, symbol for the whole history of ancient Rome, to construction enterprises instead of firms for the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage. Using the enormous decisional power, which he has inherited from Bertolaso (Head of the italian emergency protection service), the commissionary has downgraded the Colosseum: in the year 2000 a pilot project, conducted by conservation professionals and lauded worldwide, had been carried out, in order to pin down the correct application techniques. Now instead, drafting for the purpose a new and crude restoration project for the damaged surfaces, huge construction enterprises, on which converge the sympathy and trust of the commisionary, instead of firms for the conservation of cultural heritage, have been called to lay hand on the monument. This condemnable practice has already been adopted for a part of the Colosseum and other very important monuments of the Roman Forums, as for example the Temple of Antonino e Faustina, completely disregarding the law, which identifies in the conservation professionals the legitimate figure to carry out these delicate projects, in order to garanty the best possible conservation of the monument. The Special Commissionary, created to carry out the restoration works on the archeological monuments faster and better, has chosen to put their conservation in the utmost risk: an inappropriate intervention risks to remove the most significant layers of the monument's surface causing an unrecoverable damage; many monuments contracted by the public administration in Rome in recent years shared the same fate in the complete lack of interest by the media. Sign the petition brought forward by the Association of Italian Restorers (ARI) to abolish the Special Comissionary and save the roman monuments, recovering legality and the correct application of the applying laws. Sign, so that the 9th article of italian constitution, which obligates the Repubblic to protect its cultural and artistic heritage, is rispected. The Colosseum is heritage to all of us!