Ricerc@Sapienza

In the last twenty-five years, the study of different archival funds has allowed us to understand the
complex series of events that led, in different historical moments and cultural contexts, to the excavation, reconstruction and musealization of the Ara Pacis. Overall, the documentation covers a chronological period of seventy years (1882-1952) and culminates in the events of 1937-38, with the last excavation of the monument, its quick restoration at the Museo Nazionale Romano and its layout in the Lungotevere in Augusta area. Before and after this crucial date, the archival documentation testifies other important moments in the history of the Ara Pacis, that was frequently the focus of study programs, excavation, restoration and display never exempt from open political implications. In this process, the archaeological object was increasingly deprived of its historical nature and projected - in an abnormal and paroxysmal crescendo - into an eminently ideological dimension.