BATTLE GROUND, Wash. (KOIN) — The original marble sculpture of The Pieta is at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. But a Battle Ground company, with the authority from The Pope, created a one-of-a kind art masterpiece — a pure silver version of The Pieta.
The statue was made using waxes from the plaster molds taken off Michelangelo’s masterpiece in 1932.
“Every chisel mark, every sand and scratch in that wax that’s on the original is in this piece. It’s a one-of-one, true original Michelangelo,” said Jason Dilling with Foundry Michelangelo. “It’s by far the largest statue, sculpture ever created in silver.”
The silver sculpture, worth $70 million, is the “largest pure silver monument ever created on Earth,” he told KOIN 6 News.
Battle Ground, Washington seems an unlikely place for a piece like this until you see the other Italian Renaissance pieces in bronze and precious metals at Foundry Michelangelo.
“I love the Northwest, Clark County specifically,” said Mark Russo, the CEO of Treasure Investments. “I’ve been in the art business for over 30 years and I had some property out here and we just like it.”
Treasure Investments represents 230 artists around the world at 57 galleries in the US and on 170 cruise ships. Presidents and celebrities have Treasure Investment pieces.
Russo ran a gallery in Italy where he made connections and got exclusive rights to cast several Italian Renaissance works.
“Now we have the exclusive rights to caste the Renaissance pieces from Michelangelo, Bernini, Giambologna, some of the most famous artists in the world in precious metals,” Dilling said.
But The Pieta is the pièce de résistance. The Pieta in silver is now touring art galleries around the world but it will return to be the centerpiece of a future museum in Battle Ground — unless someone buys it first.
“It was a dream come true,” Russo said. “We like to say you can come visit Rome in Battle Ground, Washington.”