The Farnese Atlas, an imposing marble sculpture weighing nearly 20 kilograms and standing approximately 2 meters tall, part of the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN), will represent Italy's cultural heritage in our Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.
The work arrives in Japan and Asia for the first time, and will be positioned in the center of the semicircular Piazza of the Italian Pavilion whose architecture is inspired by the Ideal City of the Italian Renaissance, designed by Mario Cucinella – MCA Architects.
The announcement was made by the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Ambassador Mario Vattani, during the press conference held at Villaggio Italia, the traveling project to promote the excellence of Italy's cultural, artistic, historical and economic heritage created on the occasion of the arrival in Tokyo for the first time in history of the Training Ship Amerigo Vespucci.
A unique setting for an extraordinary announcement, made in the presence of Italian and Japanese authorities and institutional representatives of the Expo, personalities from the world of culture and Japanese, Italian and international economy, in front of an audience of local and international journalists.
“Placing a masterpiece and icon of inestimable value such as the Farnese Atlas at the centre of the Italian Pavilion, during the days of the Universal Exposition in Osaka in 2025, means making known to everyone a work that represents the cultural heritage of our nation,” commented the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.
The precious sculpture, together with other works in the collection, has contributed to making the MANN one of the most important archaeological museums in the world, determining a strong impulse to the diffusion of our culture and to the recognition of Italy as the custodian of a unique heritage on a global level”.
“For the first time, the Farnese Atlas arrives in Japan: this is an unprecedented logistical operation, made possible thanks to the trust of the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, to whom we extend our full gratitude,” declared the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Mario Vattani.
We thank the General Directorate of Museums and the Archaeological Museum of Naples, and we are certain of the value of this choice, because the Farnese Atlas, with its very strong symbolic charge, also tells the values that we bring to Expo: the richness of our cultural heritage and the responsibilities that derive from it, and also science, research, our high technology, the spirit of travel and the discovery of other cultures".
“It is with pride that the Directorate-General of Museums and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples have accepted the invitation of the General Commissioner for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, to support Italy's presence during the next Universal Exhibition with the loan of one of the Museum's most representative masterpieces – explained the Director-General of Museums, Massimo Osanna -.
The choice of the Farnese Atlas, a unique and iconic work, was not at all accidental. The sculpture, powerful not only from a historical-artistic point of view but also for the multiple meanings underlying it, flies overseas for the first time to embody the spirit of this important international event: the overcoming of the frontiers of knowledge through curiositas, the desire for discovery and the attraction for the unknown, innate in the human soul and which have always contributed to creating bridges and establishing relationships between different worlds and peoples, between the West and the East”
