They Award Eusebio Leal the Rotondi Prize for Art Preservers

October 8, 2019

The Rotondi Prize for art savers, awarded by State Law in Italy, was granted in 2019 to Eusebio Leal, Historian of Havana, for his restoration work on Cuba's capital, the preservation of the nation's heritage and the work of recovering the Capitol of Havana, currently the seat of the National Assembly of People's Power.

The ambassador of Cuba in Italy, José Carlos Rodríguez Ruiz, at the express request of the honoree, was in charge of receiving, from the hands of the undersecretary of state for Economic Development of Italy, Alessia Morani, the Rotondi Prize awarded to Leal.

The ceremony took place at the Rocca Ubaldinesca, a fortification from the Renaissance period, located in the town of Sassocorvaro, in Montefeltro, in the Marche region, in the center of Italian territory. Built around 1475, during the time when the famous Duke Federico da Montefeltro governed the territory, this unique building served during World War II as a shelter for more than 10 thousand works of art, from various areas of Italy.

The Cuban ambassador, in thanking the jury's decision, exalted Leal's personality and legacy, who with exceptional vision and determination, with the decisive support of the Cuban State and the participatory appreciation of the country's citizens, particularly the residents of Old Havana, has founded a gigantic process of defense, recovery and promotion of the heritage of the Cuban nation, also recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage, as is the case, among other places in Cuba, of the historic center and the system of fortifications of the Cuban capital.

The information from the Embassy of Cuba in Italy specifies that the Rotondi Prize, which has been awarded annually since 1997, as part of the "Arca del Arte" project, intended for the valorization of heritage protection, not only in Italy, but worldwide, takes its name from the surname of Pasquale Rotondi, who was superintendent for Fine Arts in Urbino, who, with great civic commitment and in the midst of the dangerous circumstances of war, coordinated what is now known in history as the "Rescue Operation."

Through this operation, from 1943 to 1944, precisely in the Rocca Ubaldinesca, under safe protection, thousands of artistic works were hidden, such as The Tempest by Giorgione and The Ideal City, among many others by Raffaello Sanzio, Piero della Francesca, Tiziano, Paolo Uccello or Andrea Mantegna.

The delivery of the Rotondi Prize to Leal coincided happily with the celebrations of Cuban Culture Day in Italy, inaugurated on October 3 in the northern city of Padua, and which, organized by the Cuban Embassy in that country, will take place until the 31st of this month in several Italian cities.