updated June 10 17:40 p.m. by Nicole Martinelli
Imagine the Coliseum sporting a McDonald’s billboard. Or maybe the Tower of Pisa draped in an ad for dirty denim. Michelangelo’s David perhaps hawking Calvin Klein underwear.
It’s not as far off as it sounds. Rome’s Pantheon will get a fix up thanks to advertising sold on scaffolding and officials throughout the country are grappling with the ethical problem of financing much-needed restorations by using monuments as giant billboards.Italy is chock-a-block with monuments, UNESCO estimates the Bel Paese holds 60% of the world’s art treasures, but unfortunately does not have the budget to maintain them.
Case in point, Florence Renaissance jewel church Santissima Annunziata. Italian media recently reported that the roof has such a steady leak it is ‘raining’ inside but there is no money for repairs. The city government is responsible for 12 churches; fixing damage to this church would eat up 25% of the meager maintenance budget.
Yet the same Florentines protested when an ad featuring a sexy pouting model advertising a brand of watches went up on the scaffolding in front of the Bishop’s Residence in the religious center of the city, Piazza Duomo. The diocesan administration, somewhat embarrassed by the brouhaha, said they were just trying to find a way to finance the work.
Some see saving art through advertising as a question of practicality.
“Let’s face it, when they started charging tourists entrance fees churches became museums, not places of worship,” architect and Florence resident Dario Notari told zoomata. “Now they are splitting hairs. If only every art work could find a sponsor, Italy would be in good shape.”
Environmental protection group Italia Nostra is of the same opinion, having gathered up enough money to restore the Pantheon in Rome with an ad scheme. They recently criticized city officials for refusing to restore more monuments through ads and imposing size restrictions on those they did accept, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported. After a billboard selling cosmetics was plastered over the front of Trinit? dei monti church, city officials have decided to review the policy and handpick ‘appropriate’ ads.
Halfway measures don’t seem to please anyone. In Milan, the enormous gothic cathedral sports a somewhat discreet side billboard for a cell phone service. It’s not large enough to finance the restoration of the facade but its presence doesn’t go down well with the Milanese.
“What’s next? A church should not be a place for advertising,” passerby Luigi Mancini, 73, told zoomata. “What bothers me most is that we may come to accept it, to not see it any more.”
In fact, scandals broke out in both Milan and Florence last year when alert citizens noticed that restorations were finished, but the scaffolding stayed. The reason? There was still plenty of money to be made from giant ads on the facades.?photos + text 1999-2005 zoomata.com
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