Cambio, Rivista di trasformazioni sociali, Vol 8, No 15 (2018)

Da Cambio, Rivista sulle trasformazioni sociali – PoieinLab editore.

The Destruction of Art in Social Transformations, di Laura Appignanesi e Michele Paladini

Abstract: The focus of the article is on destruction of artworks. From antiquity to current age, wars and political upsets had been accompanied by crimes against Cultural Heritage. Thus the thesis is the following: the artifact has a sociologic importance not only as “subject” able to transpose social changes, but also as “object” victim of violent historical changes. We examine a concrete case: the vicissitudes of gilded bronzes of Cartoceto of Pergola, whose story is still mysterious. Therefore we use interdisciplinary methodologies that have draw on judicial investigation model, archaeological analysis and conceptual tools belonging to Systems Theory. The result is a correspondence between political history and “private story” of the bronzes. In conclusion, by an inductive argumentation, the paper comes to a general consideration: crimes against artworks, by contrast, show the pivotal role of Art in the process of construction, conservation and transformation of social system.