Prof. dr. Antonino Crisà (Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia)
24th March, 2025 - 12:30-14:00
s.MU.K1.3 - Mutsaardstraat 31

Among the most recent conflicts, World War II caused the greatest destruction of urban centers in human history. In particular, several European cities were devastated by military operations and aerial bombing. Italy joined the war in June 1940, immediately becoming a major military target. Among all the Italian regions, Sicily -a region extraordinarily rich in ancient and modern cultural heritage- was strongly affected by the war due to its proximity to the African front line. Consequently, the Italian state implemented several measures to safeguard the island’s antiquities, such as installing protective scaffolding and sandbagging structures.

Despite its importance, the protection of antiquities in Sicily during World War II has remained a little-known research topic due to a lack of in-depth investigations. Fortunately, the recent Marie Curie interdisciplinary research project, Cultural Heritage in Danger: Archaeology and Communities in Sicily during the Second World War (1940–45) (Ghent University, 2019–2022), aimed to address this gap in scholarship. The goal of this lecture is to present the overall, final results of this research, which is based on intensive archival investigations and is now forthcoming as a monograph.

First, Prof. dr. Antonino Crisà will introduce his project by outlining all research stages, from the initial investigations in Italian archives to the ERC application, data analysis, dissemination, and publication. This approach provides PhD students and researchers with valuable insights for conducting similar research projects or developing comparable methodologies.

Next, he will discuss the key findings, highlighting selected case studies, such as the protection of Palermo’s museum, the transfer of collections to secret shelters, and the challenges of safeguarding Agrigento’s archaeological site.

Finally, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how the conflict impacted Sicilian antiquities and how local and national civilian and military authorities acted -and often clashed- in their efforts to protect heritage in such an exceptional wartime context.

About Antonino Crisà

Antonino ‘Nino’ Crisà is an Italian archaeologist, historian and numismatist, currently Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (Saudi Arabia). With a strong academic record and several skills in teaching, coin cataloging, archival research and 3-year experience in commercial archaeology, Dr. Crisà has been trained at the University of Milan (BA, MA and Specialization) and Leicester where he obtained his PhD Archaeology working as a ‘Classics Teaching Assistant’ (2012–16). He worked as a ‘Research Fellow’ at the University of Warwick, exploring ancient token production in Hellenistic and Roman Sicily (ERC project: Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean) (2016–19). Dr. Crisà has recently completed his highly-competitive ERC Marie Curie Skłodowska Fellowship (Cultural Heritage in Danger: Archaeology and Communities in Sicily during the Second World War (1940–45)) (Ghent University, 2019-22). As a field archaeologist, he excavated in Italy (Lombardy, Sardinia, Sicily, Veneto) and Syria (Palmyra).

His substantial publications explore numismatics and the history of archaeology and cultural heritage in Italy between nineteenth and early twentieth century (antiquarianism, coin collectors, excavations, museum collections and community archaeology) through the analysis of unpublished archival records. Two books convey this long-standing research on the Bourbon (1816–60) and post-Unification (1861–1918) periods in Sicily; a third monograph on World War 2 archaeology is forthcoming (Codename SICILYWAR). He also edited two volumes on ancient and modern tokens and one on cultural heritage in danger.

Dr. Crisà has recently obtained the “Prue and Arthur Fitts Literary Award for Ancient and Medieval Coinage Studies”, American Numismatic Association (The Numismatist) (Chicago 2021).