Storici dell’arte e restauratori tra tradizione e spinta al cambiamento. Riflessioni e pungoli di Roberto Papini nel secondo Novecento

The contribution of art historians to restoration during the interwar period and in the years of reconstruction after the Second World War is undoubtedly well-known and extensively investigated. During those years, the idea of res-toration as a discipline bridging the gap between humanities and natural sciences solidified. In that period, art his-torians, more than architects, contributed significantly to the reflection on methods and techniques to be adopted in art restoration. In this context, the contribution to the debate of the art historian Roberto Papini is relevant. Thanks to his role as a university professor and his intense journalistic and editorial activities, he came into contact and controversy with prominent restoration figures in Italy then, such as Ferdinando Forlati, Alfredo Barbacci, and Piero Sanpaolesi. This contribution explores the debates of that period between architects on one side and art historians and restorers on the other, on undoubtedly contentious topics. This investigation critically examines unpublished documents pre-served in Roberto Papini's archives and some of his published writings in newspapers of that era.