INVENTORIES OF WORKS OF ART
The protection of artistic heritage is now the concern of all governments; in the past, the papal government in particular sought to prevent the export of objects of antiquity and art, even those in private ownership; bulls and chirographs issued for this purpose became increasingly frequent from the 16th century onward. However, for such laws to have practical efficacy, knowledge of the material to be protected was necessary. Other Italian governments also issued specific regulations on the matter in past centuries.
In this sense, it can be said that the government of the Republic was something of a pioneer when, as early as 1773, at the initiative of Anton Maria Zanetti, it established that an exact catalogue or inventory should be made, place by place, «of all paintings particularly worthy of public protection.» Similarly, in 1802, immediately after the French spoliations, Pius VII ordered that private owners of works of art and antiquities should make an exact declaration of them; and in 1819, in the Duchy of Lucca, Maria Luisa of Bourbon commissioned Michele Ridolfi to compile an exact inventory of the most precious works of art and antiquities. But it was only in 1820, with the famous edict of Cardinal Pacca, that this administrative service for surveying and protecting artistic heritage was given a logical organization within the Papal State. By this edict, an «exceedingly precise list» was ordered of all objects of antiquity and art existing in churches, oratories, convents, and in any ecclesiastical or secular establishment, with special licenses required for export and a duty of 20% of the object’s value. This was the most complete and selective papal law on the subject, and it was, albeit with modifications, imitated by numerous other governments.
For the same purpose, Italian legislation has taken care to catalogue objects of antiquity and art (art. 23 of the law of 2 June 1902; art. 27 of the regulations for the enforcement of the law of 20 June 1909), for whose compilation the norms were established by the decree of 14 June 1932. The catalogue consists of a collection of cards that must provide exact knowledge of the object (whether movable or immovable, and of historical, archaeological, or artistic interest), not only from an inventory standpoint but also from a scientific one; each card, prepared in triplicate, must be signed by the custodian of the object and by the territorially competent superintendent. The custodian who wishes to restore, remove, or alienate the object must obtain authorization from the Superintendency. For some provinces, the inventory cards of movable objects alone have been published by the Ministry of Public Instruction in a series of volumes titled *Inventari degli oggetti d’arte d’Italia* (9 vols., Rome 1931 ff.). This series of inventories, in terms of descriptive method, stands between the succinct *Elenco degli edifici monumentali* (33 vols., Rome 1911 ff.) and the complete *Catalogo delle cose d’arte e di antichità d’Italia* (11 vols., Rome 1911 ff.).