Archeologia “in vista” alla prima Mostra Triennale delle Terre Italiane d’Oltremare

The “Prima Mostra Triennale delle Terre Italiane d’ Oltremare” was inaugurated on 9th May 1940 and closed after only one month because of the burst out of the war. It inserted itself in the current of the colonial exhibitions which were necessary to create in Italy the consent on the colonization and to launch on the global scenery the image of Italy like a big colonial power. In the setting up of the “Triennale”, the archaeology had to show the historical legitimacy of the conquest of the overseas territories welding the feats of the Ancient Rome to those of the Fascism. Nevertheless this task is not clearly evaluable since it is not known with precision which and how many works there were positioned. In this place it is reconstructed the composition of the setting up on the basis of the examination of the administrative acts. It is retraced the complex events of the postwar restitutions of the works coming from the ex-territories of the Empire, Libya, Greece and Albania. Attention is drawn to Amedeo Maiuri, who was the researcher of the section “Roma Antica sul mare” and of that of the Italian Isles of the Aegean Sea.