In the distinguished library of the Tennis & Racquet Club in Manhattan, the Foundation for Italian Art and Culture (FIAC), a New York-based nonprofit promoting Italian culture in the United States for over two decades, celebrated the 2024 FIAC Excellency Award recipients. Over a seated dinner, generously supported by the Alexander Bodini Charitable Foundation, FIAC Chairman and Ambassador Daniele Bodini and FIAC President Alain Elkann presented the awards to Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Borghese Gallery, and Cameron Kitchin, Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Also present was the Consul General of Italy in New York Fabrizio Di Michele, who praised FIAC’s work. “Considering the current historical and political moment and the uncertain future that awaits us, the Foundation’s work is fundamental in preserving Italian culture on this side of the Atlantic.”
Since November 2020, Cappelletti has directed the Galleria Borghese, after an academic career as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Ferrara. Her research specifically focused on collecting Italian art from the Renaissance to the 19th century and contributed to the rediscovery of Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ. At the awards ceremony, Cappelletti announced the next FIAC-sponsored project: a collaboration with the Morgan Library in New York to host Caravaggio’s Young Sick Bacchus starting next January.
The painting likely originated around 1607, when Galleria Borghese was founded. “At that time Scipione Borghese, the Villa’s owner, asked to have all the paintings requisitioned from the Cavalier d’Arpino’s workshop, where Caravaggio was then an apprentice. This is one of his earliest works and it is an honor to exhibit it in New York,” Cappelletti said.
FIAC’s decade-long relationship with Kitchin has yielded four exhibitions at the Cincinnati Art Museum. “In 2014, we presented Raphael, followed by Cagnacci’s The Death of Cleopatra and Giorgione’s The Old Woman,” Elkann said. “Lastly, in April, the museum’s conservation studio will host three paintings by Tintoretto in collaboration with the Gallerie dell’Accademia of Venice.” Two of the three paintings were restored by FIAC and the third one by the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The FIAC Excellency Award, carrying a $25,000 prize, was established to acknowledge and celebrate individuals from the United States and Italy who have made significant contributions to Italian culture and the restoration of its art heritage.
