Berlin - The German minister responsible for cultural affairs called Thursday on European museums to engage in a more active exchange of their cultural treasures. "I believe the mobility of art collections should be conducted along the same lines as the free flow of capital and people," Bernd Neumann said.
"Germany and Italy have advanced along this path," the minister said at the opening of an exhibition entitled "The Boxer from Rome," containing works from the Museo Nazionale Romano.
Highlight of the exhibition, which runs until March 16 at Berlin's Altes Museum, is the Boxer of Quirinal, a Greek bronze sculpture from the first century BC.
Neumann said the exhibition represented a pinnacle of Italo-German cultural exchange and was a sign of the exemplary cooperation between German and Italian museums.
It is only the second time that the statue, which depicts a sitting boxer, has been displayed outside Italy.
