The famous Red Tent, which gave shelter for 48 days to the survivors of the airship Italia which crashed on the ice pack due to a storm during the expedition to the North Pole led by Umberto Nobile and which left Milan in 1928, is back visible to the public after a long restoration. among the few objects of the expedition preserved to date, it will be exhibited starting from Wednesday 15 February for the 70th anniversary of the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.
The restoration of Nobile’s Red Tent. Credit: Science and Technology Museum of Milan
The Tent, which has a square plan (270 centimeters per side) and a pyramidal structure 250 centimeters high, is made of ivory-colored silk canvas for the external part and petroleum-blue silk taffeta for the internal one. To make it visible when seen from the air, the survivors poured red aniline (fuxin), used in flight to determine the altitude of the airship. Although faded after a few days, this particular coloring has given the tent the name by which it is known.
Nobile’s Red Tent. Interview with Fiorenzo Galli, director of the Science and Technology Museum of Milan. credit: Science and Technology Museum of Milan
THE
The relic, which belongs to the collection of the Civic Didactic Naval Museum, is on loan to the National Museum of Science and Technology from the Municipality of Milan and has undergone a long restoration, which began in 2008 thanks to the co-financing of the Lombardy Region – Department of Autonomy and Culture and entrusted to the fabric restorer Cinzia Oliva, in agreement with the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Milan.
Nobile’s Red Tent. The restorer Cinzia Oliva speaks. Credit: Science and Technology Museum of Milan
The state of conservation of the constituent materials was very compromised and fragmentary. The analysis of the seams and materials has revealed in two segments of the Tenda the presence of multiple and stratified restoration interventions carried out over time (probably around the 1950s), of which, however, no documentation has been found. The particular delicacy of the materials, which have now reached a critical moment in their life, has required an experimentation on consolidation methods carried out in collaboration with the Diagnostic Laboratory of the Vatican Museums in Rome.
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
