Italy’s museums offer takings to restore quake-hit region

The Initiative, dubbed ‘museums4italy’ was announced on Thursday, by Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini.

Franceschini underscored that the current priority was saving lives, but said all state-run museums would donate their takings as ‘a show of solidarity for the people in affected areas.’

As the dust from the earthquake settles and hopes of more survivors being pulled from the rubble fade, attention is turning to the Herculean task of rebuilding the places hardest-hit, such as the devastated town of Amatrice.

Franceschini said town's flattened historic centre had been ‘one of the most beautiful in Italy’ and told reporters that it would be rebuilt as before.

But Amatrice is just one of the centuries-old towns across northern Lazio and Marche damaged by the quake, where in addition to the immense human tragedy, a wealth of cultural and artistic heritage has been lost.

“We have so far identified 293 items of cultural or historic interest which have been damaged or destroyed within a 20 kilometre radius of the epicentre ” the minister added.

The ‘museums4italy’ scheme is one of many which have been launched to raise money to help the disaster-hit region.

On Wednesday, a food blogger launched a scheme which will see Italian restaurants around the world make €2 donations for every plate of Amatriciana pasta served.