The exhibition Recycling Beauty, 17 November 2022 to 27 February 2023, created and programmed by the Prada Foundation, is of an uncontemporary flavour. It is an interesting concept that sheds light on an unusual theme; that of the re-use of Greek and Roman antiquity in post-antique contexts. The exhibition, curated by Salvatore Settis, Anna Anguissola and Denise La Monica, and with a layout designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA, is based on the pretext of understanding and analysing the important of classic heritage in contemporary times, or in the words of Settis: “A key to accessing the multiplicity of contemporary culture”. The concept of reuse takes shape and focuses on a precise moment, i.e., when an antique work or element is removed from its initial condition and transforms into – or created – a new context, thus generating a new life and a new artistic cycle.

Two monumental marble fragments comprising the right hand and the left foot of the Colossus of Constantine (4th century A.D.), generally displayed in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, are presented and accompanied by a 1:1-scale reconstruction of the Colossus that has never been attempted before. This is a completely novel and artistically, archaeologically and anthropologically interesting project, the result of collaboration between the Musei Capitolini, the Prada Foundation and the Facta Foundation, and also thanks to the scientific supervision of the Rome Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, Claudio Parisi Presicce.