The speech by the Minister of Cultural Heritage Giancarlo Galan, held yesterday in the context of the Civita assembly, takes on the tone of an outburst. "It is necessary to attract private investment in culture", said the minister, "to do this, we need to guarantee advantageous taxation". Less taxes, more culture: this is Galan's recipe for remedying the condition of abandonment of cultural heritage in Italy.
The bill, Galan points out, is ready, the principles on which the foundations are based are recognition and transparency for every euro invested. "We need to build a fertile ground for investment - she says -, we need to decide whether in Italy culture can become a resource or is destined to remain a cost". The minister expresses regret for the paradoxical condition of very important sites (such as the Uffizi and Pompeii) and throws jabs at colleagues and predecessors: "The calls for tenders for exercises in museums (the so-called "additional services", ed) had been stopped for ten years". Tax breaks would not be enough but excellent planning and plans would therefore also be needed.
Private investment is not part of the usual way of managing cultural heritage in Italy. In the United States, for example, through the work of philanthropists, whose names are still recognizable in museum halls, it has been possible to build places of cultural and tourist interest from scratch. The Italian forerunner was Diego della Valle, who invested 25 million for the renovation of the Colosseum. According to Galan it would not represent an isolated case. “There are domestic and foreign investors interested in sponsoring our business, of course we would need something to offer them”.
A real Copernican revolution is on the table of the dicastery, and the former governor of the Veneto says he is ready to do battle. But clouds loom over the bill. Internal strife within the government not only casts doubt on Galan's chances of winning his "battle", but could soon bring down the leaders.
