Bonaria Manca's House Museum Faces Deterioration

Bonaria Manca, a self-taught Sardinian artist born in 1925, began creating art at age 55 after a life of domestic work and pastoralism. Following her divorce in the 1980s, she transformed her farmhouse in Tuscania into the 'Casa dei Simboli,' a museum filled with mosaics, paintings, and wall art. Her work was discovered by French writer and filmmaker Jean-Marie Drot, director of the French Academy in Rome from 1985 to 1994, who purchased several pieces. A room at the Musée Dr Guislain in Ghent, Belgium, is dedicated to her. However, her health decline and reclusive nature led to obscurity. Since February 2018, five mosaics and three canvases have been in restoration at the University of Tuscia, but funding shortages halt progress. The house suffers from water infiltration, faulty plumbing, and outdated electrical systems, threatening the artworks. An association of supporters formed in 2014 provides financial aid, but urgent repairs are needed. The house remains closed, awaiting its fate as a hoped-for house museum.