10 Euros Italy of Arts - Riace, Calabria

The Riace Bronzes — two full-size Greek warrior statues recovered from the Ionian Sea floor off Riace Marina in 1972 — remain among the most celebrated archaeological finds of the 20th century. Their 1981 public debut in Florence drew queues that stretched for hours, and the subsequent transfer to Reggio Calabria's Museo Nazionale prompted a full renovation of the museum's structural supports to bear their weight. Attribution remains contested: proposed sculptors range from Pheidias to Alkamenes, and no scholarly consensus has held.

This issue belongs to Italy's ongoing "Arts of Italy" commemorative series, each coin tied to a specific regional cultural patrimony.