CRUMBLING TREASURES

Italy has a wealth of art treasures. But how to take care of it? “Art restoration in Italy is in a mess. It’s not that we lack restorers of the highest ability. It is rather that the organisation of the whole, and the role of the government, is chaotic… The government may get involved when some world-famous building has collapsed, or a world-famous fresco starts peeling off its wall. But there’s no interest at all in the thousands of buildings and churches that are quietly crumbling, along with the objects inside them, in the centres of Italy’s ancient cities.” – The Telegraph (UK)