Abstract

Two recent doctoral dissertations took a close glance at the administrative action of heritage preservation in the first decades after Italian Unity. The focus was on the local heritage, especially on that coming from the church estate, where many destructions and losses of urban values and artistic wealth were caused by the choice of public works as a major factor of change and by illegal appropriations or export trade. What happened to the Federico da Montefeltro' Studiolo, finally ending up to the Metropolitan Museum, is cited as a representative case. Proposals are made for historic researches more aimed at a better knowledge of the main characters of the public action of preservation in Italy, since 1861, with a wider data collection about professional skills and administrative practices, cultural trend and social attitudes, professional status and social roles.