-‘We create bridges, are an open house’ – Vatican Museums’ director-

OSAKA, May 28, 2025 /ANSA=Kyodo JBN/--

Italian art is the protagonist of Art Talks, a series of events and meetings on the masterworks exhibited in the Italy Pavilion and the Holy See Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.

The synergy between the two countries was represented by the presence of Barbara Jatta, the director of the Vatican Museums, who spoke about the long journey that brought Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Deposition to Osaka.

Andrea Lembo, the auxiliary bishop of Tokyo, and Italy’s Consul General in Osaka Filippo Manara were with her.

“Pope Francis has asked us to be an open house, Pope Leo XIV asks us to create bridges, and it’s what we wanted to do with the Dicastery for Evangelization, with Mons. (Rino) Fisichella, who is responsible for the Holy See Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, together with the Vatican Museums”, stated Jatta.

The director of the Vatican Museums stressed the importance of “depriving ourselves of a masterpiece” from the museums’ collections during the Jubilee Year, for a period of six months.

The effort was also highlighted by Ambassador Mario Vattani, the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, who stressed the importance of the other presentations of the day as well.

It is “an example of how this pavilion lives every day”, Vattani stated, which “isn’t just a show or an exhibition”, but a place where “relations between Italy and Japan are really discussed”, along with relations between other countries, and “this is actually Expo’s spirit”.

Stefano Riccardi, director of the Holy See Pavilion, also expressed such a view.

“We very often see the Japanese who come to the pavilion and ask us if all the artworks are real and they are enchanted when they come to see them”, said Riccardi.

“It’s wonderful to feel ‘beauty’ when the theatre doors are open or when they go inside the Holy See Pavilion”, he noted.

The talk was also attended by orchestra conductor Corrado Rovaris, who spoke with soprano and Italy Pavilion ambassador Yasko Fujii.

Rovaris recalled how Italian opera is “very much appreciated” worldwide and “particularly here in Japan”, where the conductor is currently directing Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the New National Theatre in Tokyo.

“Seeing how much members of the public love Italian opera, how well prepared they are, all this makes us truly happy”, he noted.

The final address was delivered by Yuzo Yagi, an entrepreneur and ambassador of the Italy Pavilion who contributed to the renovation of the Pyramid of Cestius in Rome after which one of the capital’s neighbourhoods is named.

Yagi said that in 1971 he started a business in Italy, “importing fashion products for Japan”.

After 40 years, in 2011, “we organized a great party for the 40th anniversary of the Yagi Tsusho company in Milan and I understood how the business’s growth was also due to Italy” and “I wanted to give something back”, he said. The entrepreneur thus decided to fund the monument’s renovation, “also thanks to the Italy-Japan Foundation strongly supported by its president, Umberto Vattani, whom I thank very much”.

Source: General Commissioner’s Office of Italy for Expo 2025 Osaka