ROME: Riches from a Neapolitan treasure trove said to be worth more than the British crown jewels are going on show in Rome in an unprecedented exhibition of emeralds and diamonds once owned by popes and kings.
“The Treasure of Naples”, displayed outside the southern Italian city for the first time, boasts among other things a diamond, ruby and emerald-encrusted bishop’s Mitre and a large necklace made up of jewel-studded crosses dating back to 1679.
The collection “is of incalculable worth, both historically and artistically, greater than that of the British crown jewels or the Russian imperial crown,” Emmanuele Emanuele, head of the Rome Foundation organizing the exhibition, told journalists.
The jewels, golden chalices and silver statues in the collection, which opens Wednesday to the public, were donated down the centuries to Saint Januarius, Naples’s patron saint.
The treasure was protected from wars or pillaging by a commission set up in Naples in 1526 after a plea to Januarius to save the city.
Naples was being hit hard by a cholera which killed 250,000 people and a vociferous Vesuvius causing 30 earthquakes a day, curator Paolo Jorio said at the exhibition’s unveiling.
“The city was on its last legs, but the people of Naples knew which saint to turn to. They voted that, if Saint Januarius helped them, they would dedicate a new treasure chapel to him” in Naples’ cathedral. “They commissioned, set up, safeguarded and managed all the masterpieces that from 1305 until today have been given to the chapel, building a patrimony of 21,610 masterpieces,” he said. (Agencies)