Alberto Pirro, Ph.D.

Alberto Pirro is an art historian specialising in nineteenth-century monumental sculpture and the transnational dynamics of monumentomania, with particular attention to the circulation of artists and models between Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. After obtaining a BA in History and Conservation of Cultural Heritage from Roma Tre University (2017) and an MA in Art History from the University of Turin (2020), he completed a PhD in Historical, Archaeological and Art-Historical Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II in 2025 (37th cycle). Supervised by Isabella Valente, his dissertation offered a comprehensive study of the public monuments created by the sculptor Carlo Marochetti (1805–1867), adopting a comparative approach that investigated questions of patronage, iconographic models, and critical reception across Piedmont, France, and the United Kingdom.Over the years, he has gained research and training experience at leading national and international institutions. He undertook an internship at the Département des Sculptures of the Louvre in Paris (2019), collaborated with the Fondazione 1563 in Turin on the cataloguing of visual heritage (2021), served as pensionnaire chercheur at the Bibliothèque et Villa Marmottan in Boulogne-Billancourt (2022–2023), and was Research Fellow at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (2024). Through a series of publications, he has explored research topics that also encompass the history of photography, the critical reception and visual culture of public monuments, and the dynamics of public memory, with particular attention to the processes of contestation, removal, and reuse of statuary between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Mitgliedschaften

• ICOM (International Council of Museums)
• PSSA (The Public Statue and Sculpture Association)
• AISU (Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana)
• AAH (Association for Art History)
• IN-CSA (International Nineteenth-Century Studies Association)