Dorotheum MyART Magazine:
Between tradition & modernity

“Rome is a world entire, and one would need years and years to fully get to grips with her, and know her properly… Here, in a way, one is reborn…”
This is one of the many ways in which Goethe describes Rome in his Italian Journey, a city at once strong and imposing, yet fragile and curious. The winters are mild, with sunny days, walks in the parks, and trips to the sea to eat spaghetti alle vongole. The sky is clear in those early Sunday mornings as I run across the city, past Villa Borghese, along the Via del Corso, past the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Theatre of Marcellus. It is as if the glory of the Ancients resounds in the Circuses and the racket of the carts, in the fish market and the cattle market. All this beauty, all together, seems an utter miracle. I am lucky enough to work alongside that imperial Rome, silent and immense, in the offices of the Dorotheum Rome, where I have been a director for ten years.
I think in particular of Palazzo dei Principi Colonna, along with its splendid gallery, and the gardens which rise majestically to the Quirinal hill, and the precious collection of Old Masters, to which I have dedicated so much research and passion in recent years (M. C. Paoluzzi, La collezione Colonna nell’allestimento settecentesco, Campisano editore, Rome 2014).