The first task was to divide the 20,000 photographic negatives into three separate collections named Classical Archaeology , Medieval and Modern Times , and Ethnographic Missions . Then she and her colleagues , archaeologist Filippo Magi and the art historian Deoclecio Redig de Campos , began to classify the images , and deal with the constant flow of incoming new photographs . In 1935 , the Marchese Benedetto Guglielmo donated a private Etruscan art collection to Pope Pius XI . Speier was assigned to organize the collection . Of particular importance , she established two halls with 17 original Greek sculptures from the collection and worked on the Roman refurbishment of the Greek vase collection and the Antiquarium . During the mid-1930s , Speier spent considerable time in Germany traveling annually to visit her family . In 1937 , her letters to her lover , Italian General , airship pioneer and Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile , indicated that she was in Frankfurt for an extended period , and then in 1938 , she spent time in Basel and Geneva before returning to Frankfurt . Hitler 's first meeting with Mussolini took place in Rome in May 1938 , but Speier was not back in Rome until July . Then in September , she was in the Tuscan town of Chianciano Terme . Pope Pius XI died on 10 February , 1939 and Speier converted to Catholicism later that year with Pope Pius XII immediately renewing her employment . Although she was intensely occupied with her work at the Vatican , she often considered emigrating to the United States , where her mother and sister lived , or to Brazil . During this early period of his papacy , Pius XII granted 3,000 visas to Jews , if they had been baptized , to emigrate to Brazil , though the only evidence found linking Speier and Pius XII at this time was , in her correspondence , his congratulatory telegram on her conversion . Throughout 1939 and 1940 , Nobile was in the United States and Speier remained in Rome until the summer of 1940 , when she took a retreat to Chianciano . After 1940 , correspondence between the two was sparse as they feared censors and writing had become increasingly impractical . Nobile returned to Rome in May 1942 and her family severed communication with Speier after learning of her Catholic baptism , effectively ending her reasons for emigration . During the German occupation of Rome 1943/1944 Pope Pius XII made arrangements for Giulio Belvederi , nephew of the former Pontifical Master of Ceremonies Pietro Respighi , to hide Speier in the Catacombs of St. Priscilla , under the nunnery . Hiding in the catacombs saved Speier from the Raid of the Ghetto of Rome on 16 October 1943 in which more than 1,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and all save 16 were killed . During this part of the war , the Museum was closed , until the end of September 1944 , and many artworks from war-torn areas were shipped to the Vatican for storage . When it reopened , she continued with her work creating a detailed monuments inventory of the Vatican holdings , which resulted in several important finds . In 1946 , in an antiquities storage facility , she found a horse head sculpted by Phidias which was originally from one of the pediments of the Parthenon . On further examination , it was established from its weathering that it was in fact the second horse of Athena 's chariot on the western gable , where the dispute between Athena and Poseidon over the land of Attica is depicted . Speier also discovered the two so-called ancient Aurai statues that decorated the exterior of the Sala Rotonda when it was built in the 18th century . She published '' Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums '' ( The Sculptures of the Vatican Museums ) in 1956 about the find of the Parthenon horse 's head , and earlier in 1950 had published a distinguished report concerning the excavations of St. Peter 's Basilica in Herbig 's '' Vermächtnis der Antiken Kunst '' ( Legacy of Ancient Art ) entitled " Die neuen Ausgrabungen unter der Peterskirche in Rom "
Raid of the Ghetto of Rome
Raid of the Ghetto of Rome
Hermine Speier