it was first founded as a municipal museum in 1882. the museum building is the work of the architect piacentini. the present museum was opened to the public in 1954. the visitors can see a noteworthy and unique documentation of the greek colonisation in calabria. the museum is a must for anyone who wants to know more about reggio calabria because it is so rich in archeological finds from the city area and the surrounding districts. the museum is organised on four levels: the entrance is at ground level where the prehistory rooms and those dealing with locri are laid out. on the first floor are the rooms showing reghion, metaurus, medma, kaulon, krimissa and the numismatical department. then on the second floor is the pinacoteca or art gallery. finally, below ground level is the under water archeology department. the entrance to the museum is in piazza de nava and the first thing the visitors sees is the second century b.c. limestone telamon, found at montescaglioso in the province of matera.
the bronzes of riace
the two bronzes were found by chance in 1972, on the sea-bed not a far from the shore of the ionian seaside town of riace, about one hundred and twenty kilometres north from reggio calabria but the ship which must have been transporting them has never been found. it is most likely that the two statues were being brought from greece to rome on board a ship that foundered in a storm while it was plying the usual sea-route along the coast. the two masterpieces which are believed to date from the fifth century before christ, have become famous the whole world over, both because we have very few works of art in bronze made at that time and because of their perfect workmanship.
these two works of art are usually known now as "statue a", meaning the one that portrays a younger warrior and "statue b" meaning the more mature-looking of the two. the restoration work was first begun in the reggio calabria laboratories and continued at the florence restoration centre. the method used to the fusion of the bronze was that called "cire perdue". there have been many attempts to identify the hand of artist or artists whose work they are , but the most popular theory is that they were to separate greek artists who lived about thirty years apart, around the fifth century before christ. "statue a" was probably cast between the years 460 and 450 b.c. and "statue b" about 430 -420. some believe that "statue a" was the work of myron and that a pupil of phydias, called alkamenes wrought "statue b". statue a portrays a young hero or god, with an ineffable look, conscious of his own beauty and powerfulness. statue b, on the other hand is of an older hero with relaxed limbs and a kinder, more gentle gaze.
