Garibaldi Meucci Museum Welcomes Award-Winning Sculpture

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum has installed a bas relief sculpture of Antonio Meucci, gifted to the museum by the Italian National Committee of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
 
The sculpture, made of Carrera marble, was created by Maico Torri, a student at the Istituto del Marmo di Carrara. It took first prize at the Art School of Tuscany Students Competition last year. The competition, which honored the 200th anniversary of the birth of Antonio Meucci in Florence in 1808, was held "among the most promising and creative young artists of Italy."

The award ceremony was held in the Pergola Theater in Florence, where Meucci worked as a young man, enhancing sound and stage lighting in the days before electricity, designing stage sets and inventing mechanical devised for changing the sets in the opera house. In 1835 Meucci and his wife, Ester, moved to Cuba with an opera company who took up residence at the Tacon Theater in Havana. It was there, in 1849, that Meucci discovered the principal of the telephone while administering a mild electrical impulse to a man with a migraine. The following year the Meuccis moved to the house on Staten Island that today is the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum.

On July 4, 2010, Torri's bas relief sculpture was presented to Mary Ellen Countryman, Consul of the United States by Professor Alberto Tesi, Rector of the University of Florence at a celebration in Tuscany. The Consul's office forwarded the sculpture to GMM with a commemorative plaque and a letter from Federico Frediani of the Tuscan-American Association. In his letter Frediani said he hoped the sculpture would be "evidence that the City of Florence, where Meucci was born, remembers him with pride."

The bas relief will be displayed in a case along with Meucci's death mask.

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is owned and operated by the Order Sons of Italy in America.

CAPTION?FOR?ATTACHED?PHOTO:
At a July 4, 2010 celebration in Tuscany, Italy, an award-winning bas-relief sculpture of Antonio Meucci by Maico Torri was presented by Professor Alberto Tesi, Rector of the University of Florence (left), to U.S. Consul Mary Ellen Countryman (right) with Professor Franco Angotti looking on. The bas-relief, seen above, has been installed in the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Staten Island, New York, USA.

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum was the home of Antonio Meucci, the true inventor of the telephone, and a refuge to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the legendary hero who championed the unification of Italy. For over 50 years the museum has fulfilled its mission to preserve the legacies of these great men, and to promote understanding of the Italian-American heritage through cultural, artistic and educational programs and classes.

Regular museum hours are 1 p.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $5 per person, members and children under 10 are free. Call ahead for groups of 10 or more. The first floor of the museum is wheelchair accessible, however the restroom is on the second floor. At press time, program funding has been provided through the Order Sons of Italy in America; by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Richmond County Savings Foundation; Northfield Bank Foundation; Coccia Foundation; JP Morgan Chase Regrant in partnership with the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (COAHSI) and by grants allocated by New York City Council members Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo. The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is owned and operated by the Order Sons of Italy in America.