Giancarlo Galan chairman of the Culture Commission: if anyone feels like commenting...

by Federico Giannini (Instagram: @federicogiannini1), published on 14/05/2013
Categories: News Focus / Disclaimer
We were asked why on the website we did not cover the appointment of Giancarlo Galan as chairman of the Culture Commission. Here's what we think about it.

Some of our friends, readers, and Facebook fans have asked us why we have lavished words on the appointments of Massimo Bray and Ilaria Borletti Buitoni but have made no comment on the appointment of Giancarlo Galan as chairman of the House Culture Committee1. Our response: do you feel it is appropriate to comment? On Bray and Borletti Buitoni one could at least discuss ideas, whether they were shareable or not. On Galan, the only thing we can do is to recall his recent record, that is, when the PdL parliamentarian had anything to do with culture.

On March 23, 2011, Galan was appointed Minister of Cultural Heritage following the resignation of Sandro Bondi2. Meanwhile, ex-minister Galan is remembered for his program for cultural heritage, based on the assumption “culture is the country’s gasoline” (we have already discussed several times on the website how inappropriate-as well as old-this metaphor is). Among his proposals: a “youth council for the ministry of cultural heritage with the best Italian graduates in the field” (never formed), “norms to facilitate the ministry’s spending capacity” and for Pompeii “a norm to facilitate sponsorships” (never seen), a generic "I will also focus on the non-profit third sector and businesses for culture"3: in short, a “Roosevelt plan of culture,” as he called it at the time. It is a pity, however, that there are no big traces left of this Roosevelt plan in Italian culture.

Giancarlo Galan is also remembered for a famous measure, concrete (indeed... far too concrete!): an article in Il Giornale dell’Arte that came out in the paper edition of the newspaper in July 2011, made it known that “among the experts chosen by Galan as personal advisers” also included Marino Massimo De Caro (“already with Galan at Agriculture for bioenergy,” the newspaper pointed out)4. There is no need to recall who Marino Massimo De Caro is, who would later be appointed (though not by Galan, who did not even ratify the appointment) director of the Girolamini Library: one only needs to Google a bit to get a well-defined idea. And although Galan declared himself “embittered” by the looting of the Girolamini Library and felt "all the moral responsibility of having elected De Caro to such a delicate position,"5 the fact that he appointed De Caro as his advisor probably not because of any particular professional or scientific qualifications (as can be inferred from his resume), but because he was referred to him by Marcello Dell’Utri6 certainly does not play in his favor. And on all this, Tomaso Montanari has already expressed himself just three days ago in his blog on Fatto Quotidiano7. Montanari, however, was just in time to miss Giancarlo Galan’s first statements as chairman of the Culture Commission.

Given the premise, who feels like commenting?

Notes

1. See House: Galan (PDL) chairman of Culture Committee, from asca, May 7, 2013 ↑

2. Cf. Government, Galan leaves agriculture ministry and goes to cultural heritage, from La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre, March 23, 2011 ↑

3. Cf. Galan: “Culture? It is the country’s gasoline. Museum receipts go to Mibac,” from ADN Kronos, April 13, 2011; Minister Galan: “Culture is the country’s gasoline We don’t need more money but the ability to invest,” from Il Giornale, April 13, 2011; Culture, newly appointed minister Galan’s plan, from Letter 43, April 13, 2011 ↑

4. See All the minister’s advisers, from The Art Newspaper, July 2011 ↑

5. Cf. Girolamini, former minister Galan to prosecutors: “De Caro was reported to me by Dell’Utri,” from Il Mattino, January 29, 2013 ↑

6. See article in footnote 6 ↑

7. Cf. Tomaso Montanari, Commissions, Galan to Culture: help!, from Il Fatto Quotidiano, May 11, 2013 ↑


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