Rome. The new Italian Minister of Culture wants to make his mark. Nothing could be easier and less costly for this than taking over the major museums. Alessandro Giuli has therefore decided not to renew four directors of major cultural institutions for a second term. Despite everyone’s good work, and for some the excellent results obtained, they were all fired and found out at the last moment by a text or an email. Mario Epifani (Royal Palace of Naples), Annamaria Mauro (National Archaeological Museum of Matera), Maria Luisa Pacelli (National Pinacoteca of Bologna) and Stéphane Verger (National Roman Museum) all deplore a decision which they criticize for the lack of justification on the substance and brutality over form. No communication was possible with the Minister of Culture and they were only entitled to a brief telephone call from Massimo Osanna, the general director of the national museums, from Turkey where he was traveling.
Ancient Rome, a symbol for Giorgia Meloni
The Italian press was quick to highlight the ” sacrifice ” of the archaeologist Stéphane Verger, foreign director, a fortiori French, at the head of the Roman Museum which includes, in addition to the Baths of Diocletian, the Massimo Palace, the Altemps Palace and the Crypta Balbi. One of the most important museums in the capital dedicated to ancient Rome. So many symbols to which the current coalition in power in Italy led by a post-fascist party is not insensitive. Stéphane Verger shares in an open letter his “bitterness” not being able to complete the projects launched. He believes that his dismissal ignores the “four years of great work which resulted in significant achievements, despite the difficult conditions, from Covid to the increase in energy prices, in a context of general staff shortage and reduction in operating appropriations“. Edith Gabrielli, current director of the Istituto ViVe – Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, will replace the French archaeologist.
Currently, no less than twenty-one national museums find themselves without management or with interim management. Among them, the Royal Museums of Turin, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the museums of Ferrara and Lucca, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the Pilotta of Parma. Next year, international calls for tenders will be launched to find a director. This is one of the largest rotations ever to occur in the transalpine museum sector at a delicate moment. Because vast projects with a budget of several million euros have been launched as part of the European recovery plan, the Ministry of Culture is undergoing a reform of its internal organization and the current government does not hide not his intention to place his followers in key positions despite his glaring absence of leaders in the cultural world. His nationalist proclamations and his desire to promote a “new Italian imagination” leave little doubt about the color of the passport of future museum directors.
Those who have just landed, apart from the fact that their mandate was coming to an end, all had in common that they were appointed in 2020 by Dario Franceschini. A clear indication of this intention to turn the page on the legacy of the emblematic center-left Minister of Culture. Massimo Osanna, the director of the national museums, is not a leading figure in the conservative camp. He could soon pay the price for the intention displayed by Giorgia Meloni upon her arrival in power“put an end to the cultural hegemony of the left”.
