Online seminar: Plaster and Bronze Legacies: Rediscovering, Preserving and Teaching with Casts Collections Across Time and Borders.

The Research & Development Committee of the Society for the History of Collecting is happy to announce the online seminar "Plaster and Bronze Legacies: Rediscovering, Preserving and Teaching with Casts Collections Across Time and Borders", the second of the cycle "Unveiling Hidden Histories, Creating New Narratives: The Collections of Teaching Institutes".

Date: 25 November 2025
Time: 14:00-18:00 (CET Paris/Rome/Berlin)

Attendance is free. Please register in advance at the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/WBY9o81MT0y5wiksL3XTyQ

Programme

14:00 Introduction & Welcome: Sarah Coviello, Valeria Paruzzo, Giuseppe Rizzo (The Society for the History of
Collecting)

14:15 Session 1: Origins and Early Histories of Cast Collections

Tanja Kilzer (University of Trier)
"The Plaster Cast Collection of the University of Bonn - Lost Works and Major Classical Sculptures in Plaster since 1818"

Jelena Todorović (University of the Arts Belgrade)
"Bronze Casts with a Curious History: How a collection of bronzes from 1930s became a teaching tool at the Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade"

Rebecca Yuste (Columbia University, New York City)
"Classicism in Mexico: Plaster Casts at the Royal Academy of San Carlos, 1791"

15:00 Mini Q&A

15:15 Session 2: Past and Present of a Fragile Heritage

Linca Kucsinschi (Jean Moulin University, Lyon 3)
"Reviving Classical Antiquity – The Gypsothèque of the University of Bucharest"

Ioana Rus-Cacovean and Tereza Pop (University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca)
"The Collection of Classical and Hellenistic plaster casts of the University of Art and Design (UAD) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania"

Flaminia Ferlito (IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca)
"Provenance studies of sacred art in post-unitary timeframe. Oronzo Lelli and the plaster casts collection of the Liceo Artistico di Porta Romana in Florence"

16:00 Mini Q&A and Break

16:30 Session 3: Contemporary Uses and New Narratives

Milena Gallipoli (Museo de la Cárcova, Universidad Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires)
"Reframing America within “universal art history”: the collection of Mesoamerican plaster casts and visual resources at the Museo de la Cárcova (Buenos Aires, Argentina)"

Emy Faivre (Université Marie & Louis Pasteur, Besançon), Arianna Esposito (Université Bourgogne Europe, Dijon) and Sophie Montel (Université Marie & Louis Pasteur, Besançon)
"Sharing collections for teaching purposes (museums, art schools and universities). A viewpoint of preserving and present-day learning practices from France"

Giulia Coco (Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello)
"Enhancement, Research and Inclusion at the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello. The new Acquisition of Venus Entering the Bath by Luigi Pampaloni for the plaster casts collection"

17:15-18:00 Mini Q&A and Roundtable Discussion and Networking: Towards a Shared Framework for Cast Collections in Teaching

Organized by Sarah Coviello, Valeria Paruzzo and Giuseppe Rizzo on behalf of the Research & Development Committee of the Society for the History of Collecting