From lack of funding to vandalism, I investigate why the most famous Italian landmarks are deteriorating and who is to blame
In a little town called San Daniele del Friuli, in the North-East of Italy, one of the oldest libraries in the whole country is at risk of closing down. The “Biblioteca Guarneriana” – translated Guarnerio’s Library, named after Guarnerio of Artegna, an Italian humanist of the 15th century – stores one of the oldest copies of Dante’s Inferno. It also stores a 13th century Byzantine bible and more than 600 manuscripts dated back to 1400. The library needs almost £4 million for maintenance costs of the ancient manuscripts and archives, but it only gets a quarter of it from regional public funds.
“It barely covers the costs of a single archive,” Elisa Nervi, director of the Guarnerio’s Library, says. “We need to find another three million euros [£2.6 million], or our library will soon become yet another lost fortune.”
Guarnerio’s Library is only one of the many Italian art treasures at risk of closure due to the lack of funding. According to an investigation conducted by Il Sole 24 Ore, more than 150,000 historical museums and libraries in Italy are facing financial problems, while one in three state-owned museums have seen a dramatic funding cut from local councils.
The largest museums are not excluded. The Museum of Capodimonte, located in a grand Bourbon palazzo just outside Naples’ city centre, might face the same fate as Guarnerio’s Library if the museum doesn’t get enough money to employ a new member of staff.
Inside the luxurious rooms of the villa, paintings from the most well-known Italian artists, including Caravaggio, Botticelli, Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, could no longer be displayed to the public.
The museum director Sylvain Bellenger blamed the way the current Italian pension scheme works which doesn’t allow people in the retirement age to retire until their pension funds meet a certain quota.
“My staff members are too old to work and most of them are not specialised in cultural heritage,” Bellenger says. “I don’t have enough money to employ new people, but at the same time, I can’t fire my current employees.
“The government needs to change this because young graduates are the key to keeping our ancient beauty alive.”
Bellenger’s call for young employment in order to preserve the cultural heritage does not stand alone. Many other organisations such as the Foundation Enzo Hruby, which works on the preservation of the cultural heritage, are calling the Government to change the current pension policy and finance young people interested in archaeological research.
Although some cultural experts showed scepticism towards the government’s choice of distribution of public funding, with many targeting the single councils, data is clear. FederCulture, the Italian organisation responsible for cultural development, published a report which shows the government has more than doubled its cultural funding from 2000 to 2018. According to statistics published by Istat (Italian Institute of Statistics), the Italian Government invested €2.1 million (£1.8 million) in culture in 2000 while it spent more than €2.7 billion (£2.3 billion) in 2018 for cultural purposes.
Why then is Italian cultural heritage deteriorating?
Dr Cristina Loglio, adviser for the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini, explains the reason: Italian cultural wealth is becoming more and more expensive to preserve.
“More than a lack of funding, our heritage is facing bigger threats,” she says. “Most of Venice’s sites were completely underwater a couple of weeks ago, which is something we haven’t seen in years.
“The damage that saltwater had on Venice’s historic landmarks will now cost money and it’s an event that we couldn’t predict.”
According to a report released by Ispra (the Italian Institute for Environment Protection and Research), about 80,000 sites are threatened by landslides or floods. Among them, around 3,000 artworks are at risk of hydrogeological instability in Rome and 1,300 in Florence.
Adverse climate conditions have become more frequent in Italy where unexpected floods have also caused damage to other important sites around the country, such as the ancient city of Pompeii where three walls collapsed in 2017.
However, Dr Loglio explains that the weather is not the biggest threat to Italian cultural sites, but human nature is to blame.
“Negligence, thieves and vandalism: these are the downfalls of our country,” Dr Loglio says. “There are hundreds of abandoned historical sites and buildings in Italy which are ‘no man’s land’ and are subject to neglect and looting.”
Alessandro Bugani is a street art photographer and owner of the website Decadence. There, he publishes pictures of the abandoned places he encounters during his bike adventures.
“During one of my rides across the country, I noted an abandoned ‘castle’ near Florence – which turned out to be a villa from the 18th century,” he says. “From the outside it was beautiful, abandoned, with an impenetrable look. I soon realised it was highly accessible as the door had been completely knocked down. What I found inside was very delusional.”
“Everything was in a very bad condition,” he says. “The ceilings were once beautifully painted with some frescos from the 18th century but are now half fallen. Rubbish was everywhere and thorns were growing through the floor and where the roof collapsed.”
Bugani says that he was shocked when he found out later at home the place was inhabited by around 275 squatters back in 2007.
“I saw some graffiti in the main villa and some abandoned objects which proved the castle used to be a refuge for homeless, but I couldn’t imagine it was such a big number,” he says.
The villa, which is called in dialect Castel Luzzi, hasn't been inhabited since 2010, but after nine years, it is still an abandoned wonder.
“I went back there recently,” Bugani says. “It is sad, because at least the place used to be a shelter for people who couldn’t afford a home. Now it is just another piece of history which is left there to be forgotten. Italy is the cemetery of culture.”
Visit Alessandro's website for more pictures and stories about decadent beauties.