Sculture nei Musei Capitolini. Note per una storia del restauro tra il 1830 e l’Unità d’Italia

The reconstruction of the history and the events that involve the collections in the Capitoline Museums shows a substantial gap in the years between 1820s and the election of Rome as the capital of Italy in the early 1870s. In the perspective to bridge such a historiographical gap, this paper offers an interpretation of the campaigns of restoration and conservation that were carried out on the sculptures of the museum in these years, through the analysis of the documents which are kept in the Capitoline Archive, files Presidencies and Deputations and Archeological Municipal Commission. In this context, the investigation of the original records will demonstrate, on the one hand, the presence of several people working in the museum, from the president to the restorers and the stonecutters, as well as, on the other hand, the gradual emerging of new standards both in the restoration of sculpture and the approach to the understanding of the history of ancient Rome.