The Colonial Museum of Rome. History and revelation of a difficult heritage

The Colonial Museum of Rome was founded as an extension of the Ministry of Colonies and officially opened in 1923. Implemented in the 1930s during the Ethiopian War, the museum changed its setting and moved to Via Aldrovandi. In 1947 it was reopened under the name “Museum of Italian Africa” and closed permanently in 1971. ​​​ Just as the traumatic memory of Italian colonialism has been omitted, censored, and mitigated during the years, the same fate has befallen the museum's collection, which due to various deviations, including the constant changes of location and jurisdiction, has suffered concealment and partial revelations and has been the subject of cataloguing and in-depth study only in recent times. This proposal will attempt to retrace the tangled events that involved this museum, considering the processing of new possible systems of restaging its collection at Rome Museum of Civilizations and the new museum director, to open a dialogue with a partially removed legacy and build a critical perspective able to question and reflect on these extremely important objects.