Another Small And Modern Museum In Roma: The Museo dell'Ara Pacis

This one is a lightning rod.  It is -- like the MAXXI modern art museum I reported on a couple of weeks ago -- a modern and small museum designed by a prominent hot-shot international architect.  But, unlike MAXXI, many Romans detest the minimalist glass-and-marble pavilion of the Museo dell'Ara Pacis that American Richard Meier designed.  (Meier is one of the world's leading architects of museums and other high-profile structures.  He did the Getty in Los Angeles, for one.)

According to my sources, this white museum was the first major modern construction in Rome's historical centre since WWII.  I think it looks great.  But the controversies surrounding the building caused the process of erecting it to take almost a decade.  And it's still a hot-button political issue -- it or parts of it might get torn down.  My 2 euros is that (it's actually more expensive than that to enter) it's nice to have a splash of modern architecture amidst all the old.

The content inside is not so controversial.  The museum houses the Ara Pacis Augustae, or Augustus' Altar of Peace.  This is the first emperor Augustus' monument to peace, although the docent to whom I spoke said the monument was intended to celebrate all of Augustus' conquests through war.....which I suppose is the flip-side of peace: it just depends on how you look at it!

This main part of the museum also has a couple of interesting short films about the history of the museum itself and of the Ara Pacis Augustae, including how it was brought back to prominence in the first half of the 20th Century.  

Mussolini showing Augustus' monument off to Hitler

The temporary exhibit for the past few months has been a collection of photographs by Sebastiao Salgado.  The collection is called Genesi and it contains some incredibly dramatic photos of landscapes from across the earth, sea and land animals, and indigenous or aboriginal (not sure what the politically correct term is these days) peoples from South America, Africa, and the Arctic regions.

Many of the photos are stunning.  I think they should have better anti-glare glass on the pictures, but I otherwise loved this exhibit.   Some samples: