On the matter of the Santo Spirito Crucifix Prof. Luciano Berti Former President, Fondazione Casa Buonarroti In March 1998 Pina Ragionieri met Padre Ilario Monti, Rector of the Basilica of Santo Spirito, and talked with him about a long-standing issue: the deposit at the Museo della Casa Buonarroti of the Crucifix from the Convent of Santo Spirito, attributed to Michelangelo by Margrit Lisner in 1962. Pina Ragionieri had been Director of Casa Buonarroti for fifteen years then, and for the first time found herself facing the facts and the point of view of the Augustinian fathers. And their certainty of the fact that they had been deprived of a precious asset - as she told me immediately after – moved her and also convinced her. I had to agree that for all those years direct contact between the Community of Santo Spirito and Casa Buonarroti had been lacking. This was quite likely brought about by the memory of what had taken place in the years immediately following 1964, when the concept of the “museification” of works of art had been applied to the affair of the Santo Spirito Crucifix. However that may be, a letter was sent on 27 March 1998 from Casa Buonarroti to Superintendant Antonio Paolucci, in which it was stated that, in full respect of the respective competences, we would in no way hinder the return of the work to its place of origin. In recent years, our policy has been to recover as much as possible of the artistic heritage and memory of Casa Buonarroti that still remains outside the palace of Via Ghibellina. Many examples could be cited, but it is enough to mention here the return of the 169 volumes of the Buonarroti Archives after almost a hundred years in the Laurentian Library, or the setting up of an archaeological room in our museum which took in about eighty precious items that had been on deposit in the Archaeological Museum since 1882. The return of the Crucifix also means for us a return to this way of thinking. We are thus pleased to have given rise to an event that has been long wished for by the Fathers of Santo Spirito, and that has had the unanimous consent not only of the institutions of Florence but also, I am sure, of our fellow citizens. (from The Crucifix of Santo Spirito, Florence 2000)