When the Committee to Rescue Italian Art (C.R.I.A.) was formed in the United States I Tatti became its Florentine headquarters. The first representatives who came to inspect the situation, Professors F. Hartt and F. Licht, stayed at the Villa as did several of the expert restorers who were sent by the Committee. Meetings were arranged at I Tatti in which the Italian restorers could meet their opposite numbers to discuss technical problems.
The papers of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art that are known still to exist are held by the Berenson Library at Villa I Tatti by virtue of I Tatti’s central role in the organization’s activities in Florence. The bulk of the archive was left by Myron P. Gilmore, Director of I Tatti from 1964, and a member of the Advisory Committee of CRIA from its inception. He retired as Director in June, 1973, a few months after the closure of CRIA’s Florentine office.
