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The bust - a copy of one destroyed in WWII - was inaugurated on Wednesday, the last day of Hungary's Renaissance Year 2008. The original bust was the work of Zoltán Farkas, who was commissioned by Count Domonkos Festetics. Festetics also had a copy of the bust made which he presented to the city of Bonfini's birth, Ascoli Piceno. The gesture was providential. More than 60 years after the original was destroyed, a team organised by the Budapest Gallery and led by István Fáskerti travelled to Ascoli to make a mold of the statue and cast a copy of the copy in Hungary.
Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller said that Hungary's Renaissance Year 2008 programme had "brought together the past and the future in the present, just like this statue."
Deputy Mayor Csaba Horváth said even today we can learn much from Matthias's example as well as the spirit of the age in which he lived.
Also present at the unveiling of the bust was Andrea Maria Antonini, Ascoli's deputy mayor in charge of culture. She said one could feel a renaissance atmosphere in Budapest, which is becoming more and more beautiful and culturally rich.
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Antonini asked for Hiller's help to find a lost work of Bonfini's that the historian gave to King Matthias's wife as a gift.
Author: Éva Kelemen
