Open Letter

Concerned for the destiny of Tiber Island, unique locus of history and atmosphere in the center of Rome, which is part of Unesco's Heritage of Humanity, we ask the public authorities responsible for the Island's future to respond to the following questions.

• Why has the City of Rome promoted a "partial alteration" of the deliberation that instituted the Tiber Island History Museum fifteen years ago, and designated the Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani as its seat, so as to hand over most of ancient monument to an out patient clinic of the Jewish Hospital that moved to a new building in the suburb of la Magliana thirty years ago?
• Why has the outpatient clinic been allowed to reoccupy the Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani illicitly, disregarding safety measures and within twenty meters of the great health facility, the Ospedale Fatebenefratelli?
• How is it that a private party, who acquired in competition with the City of Rome, 300 square meters of the ground floor of the palace, could defy the will of the City Council by bringing about the annulment of the Tiber Island master plan which designated the building as a museum?
• Why hasn't the city of Rome redrafted the master plan to eliminate the trivial technicality for which it was annulled?
• How was it that the private party, refused permission by the city administration to alter the premises on the ground floor, (in view of expropriation for the museum), could receive an order from the state Superintendent of Monuments to "reinforce the vaults" just where he wished to restructure the space? The same Superintendence ordered him subsequently to restore the tie-rods of the vaults which he had cut, protested that he had installed an unauthorized chimney and replaced the ancient wooden door that opens to the Piazza San Bartolomeo all'Isola, with a blank metal door.
• Who authorized the private party to remove tons of river sand, and ancient detritus from an adjoining cellar, perhaps municipal property? Removal of the mass of material at the base of Torre Caetani may have affected the stability of the thousand year-old structure which since has had to be reinforced.
• How could the City of Rome and the Region of Latium allocate five and half billion lire for "Hospitality for the Jubilee of the year 2000" to the restoration of Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani, not for the Tiber Island History Museum but for an out-patient clinic occupying the upper floors of the building without title?
• Why did the Mayor, motu proprio, stop the city's procedure intended to evict the out-patient clinic for occupation of a public monument and unpaid back rent of almost four billion lire?
• Why did the Mayor ignore the advice of the Municipal Legal Department in defense of a classified national monument, property of the City of Rome, and instead name a commission composed of representatives of the Jewish Hospital and the Italian Tiber Island History Museum Association, presided over by the municipal Soprintendent Eugenio La Rocca, to "resolve the question"?
• Since the outpatient clinic represent a particular interest and the Museum Association is a non-profit organization created to assist the City of Rome in promoting the museum in the public interest, why has the Mayor assumed the role of Solomon concerning a disputed (in his view) "baby", that is the Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani, which is rather his own, that is public, and belongs neither to the out-patient clinic nor to the Association.

The museum, first instituted and then thwarted by the City of Rome itself, was conceived to celebrate the two-thousand -year history of the Island, which goes from the foundation of the Temple of Aesculapius in 292 BC to the Rome-New York Art Foundation established in 1958, and includes historic personages of international interest like the Countess Matilde of Tuscany, Pope Gregory VII, Anacletus II (the Pope from the Ghetto), Rahere, chancellor of King Henry I, the emperor Otto III, St Adalbert of Prague, St John of God and Margaret Fuller.
The Palazzo Pierleoni Caetani is an important part of the Museum since it rises on part of the foundations of the ancient Roman Temple of Aesculapius, saw the Caetanis succeed the Pierleonis, became a Franciscan monastery for more than three centuries and housed the Jewish Hospital for ninety years.

We request the courtesy of detailed replies from the state and municipal authorities concerned, and cite the national Law n°241 regarding the public's right to such courtesy.