Torture & Death Penalty Instruments
From the Middle Ages to the Industrial Era
First opened to the
public in Florence, Italy, in April 1983, this undertaking, internationally
famous exhibition, closed in Barcelona, Spain, in 1986. It constituted a
formidable appeal against the criminality of governments and power structures of
all times and places –an appeal that was appreciated by nearly all the
reviewers and commentators in the press, on television and over the wireless in
Europe and in the United States. It may soon be revived. It should not be
confused with the many tawdry commercial imitations that have mushroomed in its
wake.
For the present, the historical range of its contents ended in about 1880-1900 because the planned updating to include torture in today's world –flourishing widely, as everyone who wants to know knows– imposes the observation of scrupulous objectivity and rigorous precision in every aspect, especially the political one: requirements that can be satisfied only by long and costly preparations, partly in collaboration with Amnesty International and similar organizations. This work is under way but the goal is still distant.
About eighty five instruments were shown, counting major and minor ones: means of capital punishment, public humiliation and torture. About three fourths of these were originals dating back to the sixteenth, and seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while the rest were accurate reconstructions made in the last hundred and fifty years or so. This collection is unique in the world today. Judging from what can be exhumed out of press archives, nothing like it had been offered to the public since 1908-09, when an exhibition entitled Die Heilige Inquisition: Wesen, Method und Wirkung – The Holy Inquisition: Its Essence, Methods and Effects – was held in Berlin. This drew heavily on two celebrated nineteenth century collection: the Desjardins of Marseilles and the Friedlaender-Manin of Venice, both long since dispersed but of which about twenty pieces, having wandered through the world's antique markets, were included here.
All the objects belong to a consortium of eighteen European and three American owners –not sadists given to murky practices but quite ordinary people who happened to have come into possession, some by inheritance, some by casual purchase, of devices which, if they repel, are nonetheless important historical documents that must be preserved or, better still, be put to socially positive use. Hence the proceeds of the exhibition were set aside, after the deduction of operating costs, not only for updating to modern torture, but for the creation of a permanent anti-torture museum in Europe.
Information and photographs in this virtual exhibition proceed from the book Torture instruments; a bilingual guide to the exhibition Torture Instruments form the Middle Ages to the Industrial Era presented in various cities in the world in 1983-2000.
click on the picture below for more information on the device
