«Some say that I have the most precious stones on earth, but the most beautiful artefacts are certainly these!». Gerardo Sacco always loves to remember this phrase that Liz Taylor he pronounced while speaking to journalists in Bari, during the filming of the film in 1987 «The young Toscanini» by director Franco Zeffirelli.
This is how the Hollywood diva defined the stage jewels made for her by the master goldsmith from Crotone who had a long working partnership with the Florentine director. And some of those goldsmith works of art that Zeffirelli liked so much are exhibited in the shots posted inside the Museum of the Gardens of Pythagoras where, thanks also to the work of the “Fullmind Lab”, the photographic exhibition celebrating 60 years of the goldsmith’s workshop of the divas.
Sacco has created necklaces, rings, earrings and crowns worn by actors and actresses such as Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Alan Bates (King Claudius in the film «Hamlet»), Elena Sofia Ricci, Katia Ricciarelli, just to mention some of the well-known faces exhibited at the exhibition. On the walls of the Museum of Pythagoras, together with the photos of the first series created by a still adolescent Gerardo Sacco, there are also the original poster of “Don Carlo”, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi staged at La Scala also by Zeffirelli, or the photo of master goldsmith from Crotone together with Sophia Loren in Moscow.
The shots selected by the trusted secretary Giacomo Salatino they tell of sixty years of an “artistic language” that goes hand in hand with “ancient wisdom”, underlines the prof. Mario Caligiuri. The Unical teacher, and friend of Sacco, was one of the speakers at the meeting organized to inaugurate the photographic exhibition. On the stage of the museum room dedicated to Pythagoras, with the president of the section “Dante Alighieri” by Crotone Antonella Cosentino, Sacco himself and the university professor there was also the mayor of Crotone Vincenzo Voce. On this occasion, the mayor announced the award to Gerardo Sacco of the «highest honor ever granted by the Municipality of Crotone to one of its fellow citizens»: «On 9 October next we will deliver the “Golden Pythagoras” to the master goldsmith». «Sacco – the mayor further observed – represents excellence, he has given so much with his hands and his creativity to the city».
The president of the “Dante Alighieri” focused on the availability and generosity of the master goldsmith, recalling the medallions with the image of Dante Alighieri made on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of the Supreme Poet and donated to the Pythagorean section. But Antonella Cosentino began by saying that the figure and work of Sacco have rightfully entered into the study promoted by “Dante Alighieri” «on the figures who with their ingenuity and their work have brought prestige to Crotone».
«Crotone, its history, faith and Calabria are sources of inspiration» of the creativity of the master goldsmith, observed in turn Mario Caligiuri who more than once wanted Sacco as a speaker at his lessons for Pedagogy students of the Unical. Sacco thanked, visibly moved, he shielded himself, defining himself “a humble person who found strength in his hands.” Those precious hands, instrument and symbol of his creativity, which everyone has mentioned. Then, with emotion, he remembered his deceased wife and addressed words of gratitude to his daughter Viviana, who manages the goldsmith company, and to its employees and collaborators. Then the secretary Salatino called to the fore six women from Crotone involved in social work, each of whom wore a jewel, marking as many particular moments of the 60 years of Gerardo Sacco’s goldsmith’s art.
«Fatherless, born in a run-down neighborhood with a marked street, but with his creativity he managed to reverse the direction of destiny», Caligiuri finally commented. And the community is grateful for it.