Heritage, memory and collections: the final chapter of a dialogue spanning millennia!

The final day begins with transatlantic and global mobility, from the Kingdom of Sardinia’s illegal slave trade to the use of minerals in autarkic propaganda and the stories embodied in Kulango gold weights. Later in the morning, the discussion turns to the complex dynamics of cultural heritage and museum display: Ethiopian objects in public and domestic settings, the practices of “Italians in Africa”, and debates over restitution between Italy and Ethiopia. The afternoon explores historical collections, from Italian lives in Zanzibar to the Medici family’s botanical interest in African plants in Florence, before concluding reflections by Anna Maria Medici and Pierluigi Valsecchi.

9:30 Session Four (II) — Circulation of Objects, Ideas and People — Chair: Pierluigi Valsecchi

Federica Morelli (ISIG-FBK Trento), Between the Mediterranean, West Africa and Brazil: The Kingdom of Sardinia’s Illegal Slave Trade (1830–1860)

Anna Vyazemtseva (Wolfsoniana – Palazzo Ducale, Genoa), Minerals and Propaganda: The Exhibition of Italian Autarkic Minerals (1938–1939)

Ilaria Micheli (University of Trieste), Between Matter and Poetry: Stories of Europe–Africa Contact Encoded in Kulango Gold Weights (Côte d’Ivoire) from the Society of African Missions

11:00 Break

11:15 Session Five — Cultural Heritage and the Musealisation of Objects

Matilde Vernuccio (University of Turin), Ethiopian Artefacts between Colonial Museums and Domestic Memories

Maria Bonaria Urban (Reale Istituto Neerlandese di Roma / Universiteit van Amsterdam), From Rome to the World: Political Entanglementes, Identity Construction, and Religious Agency in the Horn of Africa (1941-1958)

13:00 Break

14:30 Session Six — Collections, Heritage and Representations

Barbara De Poli (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Italians in Zanzibar (1881–2025)

Daniele Angelotti (Italian Ministry of Culture – Boboli Gardens and University of Tuscia), From Africa to Medici Florence: Plants and Botanical Interests as a Cultural Bridge between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Marta Di Giulio (Sapienza University of Rome), Nigra sum sed formosa: Black Voices and Beauty Denied in Western Art.

16:15 Discussion

16:45 Concluding Remarks

Anna Maria Medici (University of Urbino Carlo Bo)

Pierluigi Valsecchi (University of Pavia)

Moderator: Massimo Carlo Giannini (University of Teramo)