[Gabriel] Zuchtriegel, now 39, provoked a fresh quarrel last week after being appointed director of one of the world’s most treasured archaeological sites: Pompeii. Within hours, two of the park’s board members resigned, with one of them telling the press that Zuchtriegel – who was credited by the culture minister, Dario Franceschini, for having done an “incredible job” at Paestum – didn’t have enough experience to take the helm at Pompeii.
Zuchtriegel, who obtained Italian citizenship last year, is taking the controversy in his stride as he develops a programme for the site.1
Zuchtriegel is young but he is no stranger to the ancient Roman city that was buried in ash and pumice when the nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. He moved from Berlin to Italy in 2012 with his wife and two children for what was intended to be just a two-year stint on a scholarship with a German foundation. The family stayed on and before getting the Paestum job, Zuchtriegel was involved in the Great Pompeii Project, an Italian government and EU-funded initiative that began in 2012 to save the site after years of neglect.
The project led to a transformation in the maintenance of Pompeii, which in pre-Covid-19 times attracted about 4 million visitors a year, as well as fascinating discoveries unearthed in Regio V, a quarter of the site that is yet to open to the public.
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- 1. “It was more or less the same at Paestum,” he said. “I am relatively young for such a position, especially in Italy. But the best way to respond is with results. I’m not one who sees the director as the person who knows and decides everything. My task is to share and develop a vision together with the board and colleagues, and as fast as possible.”
