Tel Aviv Museum of Art: June 2005: annual Museum sponsor

On 6 June 2005, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art declared its nomination of the President of Capitalia as an Honorary Member of the Art Museum, in an acknowledgment of Capitalia's generous support and active involvement in Museum projects.
The awards ceremony was carried out at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on 5 December 2005, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the International Board of Governors between 2 and 6 December 2005.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CAPITALIA GROUP AND THE ART MUSEUM

Communication between the Chairman and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art began in 1990 when Mrs. Marty Panzer, the European representative of the Art Museum inquired about a contribution for an ambitious project: “The Mosaic of Tel Aviv – Yafo”, 1999, by the famous Italian artist Enzo Cucchi.

Enzo Cucchi (1949), among the most renown and loved Italian artists in the world, divides his time between Ancona and Rome. He has created a diverse variety of outdoor sculptures. After visiting Israel, the artist designed, at the request of the Tel Aviv Museum, a striking work for the new Museum Sculpture Garden. The work consists of a multi-coloured granite mosaic of about 110 m2, 36 meters long and expressed certain reoccurring themes central to Cucchi’s art. It is a long journey, recounting the story of Israel through basic symbols. The stick, from one side a sceptre and the other a cane for an elderly person; the whale, symbol of the eternal cycle of time; the cypress projecting its elongated shadow, offering rest to the passerby; the waves of the sea and clouds in the sky that meet on the horizon, destroying all confines; the numerous suns, each different, bringing fertility to the land; the orange, symbol of the first Jew who arrived from Jaffa; the island that flies with the seasons of the year; the bridge from which the lost look up or down to rediscover their path on earth (source: Charta art books website).

In the President’s profile, outlined by the Tel Aviv Museum, it was emphasized how he had always strongly believed in the possibility of expressing a unique "Mediterranean" spirit within each of the different cultures that influence it, like the tiny pieces of a harmonious mosaic. He supported the project from the beginning through financial contributions from the Banca di Roma, allowing Cucchi to offer all visitors to the Museum and the city a striking work that instilled the Museum Sculpture Garden with profound significance.

Since then, the link between the Capitalia Group and the Tel Aviv Art Museum has been further strengthened through additional initiatives and annual support from the Banca di Roma for the diverse projects of the Museum: in 2001, the exhibition by Enzo Cucchi and related catalogue at the Tel Aviv Museum, in 2002, the Metaphysical School exhibition of famous Italian painters including Giorgio de Chirico, in 2003 funding for an exhibition in Tel Aviv of the contemporary Italian artist, Claudio Parmigianino, offering the public another essential facet of Italian art.