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Musei Vaticani director attacks Matteo Renzi and the Ministry of Culture’s new set of reforms

Stefano Pirovano

Protest grows in Italy over Minister of culture Dario Franceschini after he officially announced new measures to follow up with the reform of the Italian “Beni culturali” he started in late 2014. Last Tuesday, during a meeting organized in Rome by some local associations, Antonio Paolucci, current Director of Musei Vaticani and Italian Minister of Culture himself between 1995 and 1996, spoke out against Franceschini’s intention to unify into a single office the three different institutions currently in charge of protecting Italian landscape, archaeology and artistic heritage – the so called “Soprintendenze”.

 

According to Paolucci and some other Italian respected art historians who have joined the protest, this is a serious threat to their independence. “Politicians – said Paolucci, whose words have been reported by some of the main Italian newspapers – will directly rule the new Soprintendenze”, which are bound to become less free to refuse their now fundamental “placet” in regards with, for instance, real estate projects, new infrastructures, or also exportations of works of art. And presumably this is the reason why Paolucci is also directly accusing the Prime Minister himself, Matteo Renzi, for acting against those same institutions that, while he was major of Florence, prevented him from spoiling the frescos Vasari painted in Palazzo Vecchio’ Salone dei Cinquecento in order to find the mysterious Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci. “At that time he only wanted to make the big discovery to attract the media attention”, said Paolucci. Therefore Florentine Soprintendenza refused to proceed, also because there wasn’t any scientific evidence that the fresco by Leonardo might still be there. That is why, according to Paolucci, Renzi “hates” the Soprintendenze and now wants to put them under the control of his government.

 

On the contrary, Franceschini announced that the reorganization of the Ministry of Culture is intended to simplify bureaucracy and make the system more efficient – and also to save some money, we would add. The new 41 super Soprintendenze – two of which will be exclusively dedicated to Pompei and the Colosseo – will provide a better service to citizens, and it will be easier for them to deal with the public administration for that matter.

 

A public demonstration against phase two of the Franceschini’s reform has already been announced. It is going to take place in Rome next 7 May, but don’t expect a big crowd will join in. The opponents of the reform are too old for fighting and, what matters more, the system that they want to preserve is the same one that has brought institutions in charge of preserving and promoting the Italian cultural heritage to the current state of decline. And it is also the same system that they served for years. Their approach to conservation based on the idea that cultural heritage and landscape are faces of the same coin and have to be kept untouched had failed to provide Italy with efficient museums and new valuable architecture. If the great architects and artists of the past whose achievements have been protected in such a restrictive way had to deal with these same laws, only a few of the extraordinary buildings or public scultptures we now admire would have been built. The 70s are ended, and they will not come back. People now working in the Soprintendenze are getting old, and due to the economic crisis generational turnover hasn’t taken place during the last ten years and more. Antonio Paolucci himself will turn 77 next September. He had an extraordinary career as an art historian, he has been a respected man of power. But perhaps the time has come for someone else to write a new chapter in the history of the glorious Italian cultural heritage. If possible sharing the same passion for art as Paolucci and his extended knowledge of art history, but with better outcomes for the future generations.

March 25, 2016