AN ITALIAN CIRCUS OWNER and entrepreneur acquired today the entire collection of stuffed human figures discovered in the attic rooms of the Palazzo Borghini in Rome, or, as it came to be known during the recent trial of Count Ludovico Borghini, the notorious “house of horrors.”
The Italian government has decided to grant a license to Signor Attilo Zampano to purchase for the sum of 230 million lire the entire collection of tableaux vivants, which had been impounded in warehouses for eight months throughout the course of the trial. According to Culture Minister Ronchey, the money derived from the sale is to be used to restore and maintain what he described as “museum-class” works of art.
Signor Zampano has acquired permission to take the collection on tour with his Circo Magico throughout Europe and North America. He reports that as early as last week he’d already arranged for as many as sixty bookings in cities throughout the world, including in the United States.
Characterized as Grand Guignol, the Borghini studies, fashioned from the skins of once-living individuals and posed to replicate famous works of art, have already become the source for a certain kind of black humor that has become all the rage throughout Italy. Also, a dance called the tableau vivant, in which the participants assume for long periods of time the poses of famous subjects in master paintings, is currently sweeping the discotheques of Rome, Paris, London, and New York. As recently as two days ago, the Vatican released a statement expressing its horror at the commercialization of such material.
When questioned regarding the propriety of publicly displaying such ghastly subjects for profit and gain, Signor Zampano disputed the notion that his motives were in any way venal. “These are great works of art,” he insisted. “And as such, they have great educational value. In a free society,” he went on, “the public has a right to view what they choose without government or church interference. Like it or not, that is the essence of a free society.”
—Il Messagero, Rome
9 July 1995