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Milan’s Duomo has put a restored centuries-old statue on public view through a donor-funded conservation program run by the authority that oversees the cathedral’s preservation. The Bearded Saint with Book, a 15th-century marble figure that had been kept in storage, has been restored and loaned out for display behind glass at Piazzale Cadorna, at the headquarters of FNM, a Lombardy-based transport company.
Elisa Mantia, the program’s project manager, described the “Adopt a Statue” model as a way to reverse the fate of works that otherwise remain in conservation deposits. “The uniqueness of this project is that statues that would otherwise remain in our deposits are restored and brought back to their original beauty,” Mantia said. She added that the loans let the statues continue to “tell the story of the Duomo even in places that are far from the monument.”
The Duomo’s conservation authority, the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, launched the program in 2020, under agreements that recruit donors—either companies or individuals—to finance restoration of a specific statue. Under the loan arrangements, sponsors help cover the restoration, while the institution determines where and when the statue can be displayed, including outside the Duomo itself, subject to conservation requirements.
Mantia said the conservation authority has, in advance, preselected about 30 sculptures as eligible for restoration and potential loan. Each case requires authorization by Italy’s cultural heritage authorities because the process involves a formal loan agreement that is subject to conservation, insurance and transport regulations.
The agreements can be granted for an initial one-year term and may be renewed, with the program building on earlier fundraising campaigns in which donors could adopt other architectural elements such as gargoyles or spires in exchange for inclusion in the Duomo’s donor register. Mantia said donors can be guided through the selection process by the Duomo’s experts, who accompany them to the cathedral’s storage facilities so they can choose a sculpture for restoration.
Mantia said once a donor reaches out, the restoration typically takes between one and three months. She said the Duomo’s selection process focuses on works that are “very beautiful” and not so damaged that they would be unsafe to loan, with interventions often limited to surface finishing or cleaning and other targeted maintenance steps.
The Bearded Saint with Book originally stood outdoors, and the statue’s restoration work addressed a black crust associated with air pollution on its surface. Mantia said the statue did not have structural damages that would have prevented its loan, and she described the type of work that can be done in such cases as “only surface finishing or an intervention with compresses or mechanical cleaning.”
At the Feb. 13 unveiling, Andrea Gibelli, president of FNM, said the program’s purpose is to connect cultural heritage to a wider public. “Culture can save the world,” Gibelli said during a press conference marking the display, adding that the organizers want to “spread the cultural riches we are fortunate to have, which are often overlooked or not fully appreciated.”
The Duomo itself, whose construction began in 1386 under the rule of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and in collaboration with the city’s archbishop, is a monument shaped by centuries of work and evolving artistic styles. Mantia said the cathedral’s statues—and the marble used for them, quarried in Candoglia in Italy’s Piedmont region and used since the late 14th century—are part of that continuing story.
In addition to the Bearded Saint with Book, Mantia said other statues adopted under the program by different sponsors have included a 16th-century David, a depiction of Samson and the Lion, and a statue of Saint Matthew the Apostle. She said the number of adopted statues is not disclosed and that not all loans result in statues being displayed in public spaces, but she emphasized that the program is designed to keep more of the Duomo’s works visible through restoration.