Beyond Borders  

Wednesday 16 November, 5.30pm  
Florence ’66 – After the flood 

Screening of the film by Enrico Pacciani, in the presence of the director

After the official premiere as part of the Celebrations in memory of the Flood and the premiere on Sky Arte HD on 5 November, the film Firenze 66 – Dopo l’Alluvione di Enrico Pacciani, produced by Alkermes and Sky Arte HD, is presented at the Museo Novecento in the presence of the director. 

On November 4, 1966 the Arno broke the banks and flooded the historic center of Florence. The city that the Medicis had imagined as a “new Athens” risked to find itself submerged like a new Atlantis. Thousands of volunteers from all over the world mobilized to help save Florence and its cultural heritage. Driven by a common passion for art, many of them crossed the borders and divisions imposed by the Cold War to save treasures believed to belong to all humanity. The film was made with the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the collaboration of the Archivio del Festival dei Popoli and was made as part of the Sensi contemporanei per il cinema program.
50 years after the flood that struck Florence on November 4, 1966, Florence 66 – Dopo l’Alluvione is the story of how the catastrophe transformed the city, of people spontaneously arrived from all over the world to save the works of art and their stories, the cultural and environmental challenges still to be addressed. Through the testimonies of the protagonists of the rescue, the commentary of experts and the use of archival images, the documentary investigates how the Flood has marked for 50 years the city of Florence and its rescuers, and how it continues to be important also for those who have not lived it.

Wednesday 23 November, 5.30pm 
The restoration site after the 1966 flood  

Meeting with Marco Ciatti, Director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure 

A meeting dedicated to the restoration works created in Florence in 1966, in the aftermath of the flood.

The natural disaster, brought down on a territory so rich in artistic goods and documents, awakened consciences prompting restorers and technicians from all over the world to come to Florence in the name of a patrimony ‘common’. This created a place of excellence and transnational exchange for the restoration and recovery of the historical and artistic heritage. 
The conference will be an opportunity to recount this part of the history of the twentieth century and to underline the value of these exchanges, then hardly imaginable within a political framework marked by the contrasts of the Cold War.