MILAN (AP) — A 15th-century statue that once stood outside Milan’s iconic Duomo has found a new home.
The Bearded Saint with Book was recently restored under the “Adopt a Statue” program, launched in 2020 by the centuries-old institution that oversees the cathedral’s conservation. As of Feb. 13, it is on display at Piazzale Cadorna, behind a glass window at the headquarters of FNM, a Lombardy-based transport company.
The program recruits donors — either companies or individuals — to fund restoration of a statue under a loan agreement that allows it to occasionally be displayed outside the Duomo.
“The uniqueness of this project is that statues that would otherwise remain in our deposits are restored and brought back to their original beauty,” the program’s project manager, Elisa Mantia, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “In that way, they can continue to tell the story of the Duomo even in places that are far from the monument.”
These agreements are in some cases granted for an initial one-year term and may be renewed. The initiative follows previous fundraising campaigns in which donors could adopt gargoyles or spires in exchange for inclusion in the Duomo’s donor register, where contributors’ names are recorded as part of the cathedral’s long history of support.
From storage to public display
The construction of the Duomo began in 1386, under the rule of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then lord of …