Committee to Rescue Italian Art

The Committee to Rescue Italian Art was an American committee whose mission was to lend aid to Italian institutions in their own efforts to rescue the cultural heritage damaged by the 1966 flood of the Arno river. Jacqueline Kennedy assumed the Honorary Presidency of the organization. Professor Millard Meiss of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton chaired the Committee working with members of the executive committee. CRIA's members included art and architecture historians such as Bates Lowry, Fred Licht, Millard Meiss, Frederick Hartt, Sidney J. Freedberg, James Ackerman and Rudolf Wittkower, as well as historians and linguists such as Paul Oscar Kristeller, Felix Gilbert and Myron P. Gilmore. All were intellectuals with close ties to Florence and to Italy who had long studied its culture through original sources and documents.

There were three general headquarters of CRIA in its six years of activity: an office in New York at 717 5th Street, where Bates Lowry supervised work and spent the bulk of his time fundraising, (from both large donors and smaller appeals in universities and schools) and two offices in Florence, the ground floor of Palazzo Pitti and Villa I Tatti.

CRIA Advisory Committee selected works of art to adopt with the funds raised by CRIA. Thanks to CRIA's assistance, monuments, paintings, library materials and manuscripts were restored at a cost of two and a half million dollars, roughly the sum that the committee had originally set out to raise.

The Committee to Rescue Italian Art (CRIA) was an American committee created in the wake of the 1966 flood of the Arno River and high tides in Venice. CRIA worked in partnership with Italian institutions to rescue and restore all types of cultural heritage that had been damaged. Leadership included Jacqueline Kennedy, the Honorary President of the organization, and Professor Millard Meiss of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, whom chaired the Executive Committee. CRIA’s members included art and architecture historians such as Bates Lowry, Fred Licht, Frederick Hartt, Sidney J. Freedberg, James Ackerman and Rudolf Wittkower, as well as historians and linguists such as Paul Oscar Kristeller, Felix Gilbert and I Tatti's own director, Myron P. Gilmore. All were intellectuals with close ties to Florence and to Italy who had long studied its culture through original sources and documents.There were three general headquarters of CRIA in its six years of activity: an office in New York at 717 5th Street, where Bates Lowry supervised work and spent the bulk of his time fundraising (from both large donors and smaller appeals in universities and schools) and two offices in Florence at Palazzo Pitti and Villa I Tatti. The Committee successfully campaigned to raise its target goal of 2.5 million dollars. These funds were then used to restore countless works of art, including monuments, paintings, manuscripts and library materials as selected by the CRIA Advisory Committee.

While the I Tatti records are organized in a similar fashion as that of the Palazzo Pitti offices – divisions reflecting the main categories of the Italian system of Soprintendenze – the subject matter is less financial and more scholarly in nature. Files include restoration reports and a large group of photographs, the latter of which were formerly housed in the Berenson Fototeca.

The Committee to Rescue Italian Art (CRIA) was an American committee created in the wake of the 1966 flood of the Arno River and high tides in Venice. CRIA worked in partnership with Italian institutions to rescue and restore all types of cultural heritage that had been damaged. Leadership included Jacqueline Kennedy, the Honorary President of the organization, and Professor Millard Meiss of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, whom chaired the Executive Committee. CRIA’s members included art and architecture historians such as Bates Lowry, Fred Licht, Frederick Hartt, Sidney J. Freedberg, James Ackerman and Rudolf Wittkower, as well as historians and linguists such as Paul Oscar Kristeller, Felix Gilbert and I Tatti's own director, Myron P. Gilmore. All were intellectuals with close ties to Florence and to Italy who had long studied its culture through original sources and documents.There were three general headquarters of CRIA in its six years of activity: an office in New York at 717 5th Street, where Bates Lowry supervised work and spent the bulk of his time fundraising (from both large donors and smaller appeals in universities and schools) and two offices in Florence at Palazzo Pitti and Villa I Tatti. The Committee successfully campaigned to raise its target goal of 2.5 million dollars. These funds were then used to restore countless works of art, including monuments, paintings, manuscripts and library materials as selected by the CRIA Advisory Committee.

The CRIA office in Palazzo Pitti was opened in the first days of 1967 after the American fundraising campaign had begun. To facilitate the distribution of funds and accommodate American restoration experts newly arrived in Florence, CRIA decided to establish an office in the city center. The Committee chose a ground-floor space in the Palazzo Pitti that opened onto Ammannati’s courtyard and hired Judith Munat as secretary. The records produced by this office are mainly financial and consist largely of invoices. Records related to the first months of CRIA’s activity is presented in its original chronological order. After this early period records are arranged according to the different restoration projects for which the Committee raised funds.