Sgarbi: Stop foreign directors in museums? Just kidding, I reiterate my esteem

The words that Undersecretary for Culture Vittorio Sgarbi had spoken on the subject of foreign directors in Italian museums last Sunday, speaking at a meeting at the Principe di Piemonte in Viareggio, interviewed by journalist Stefano Zurlo, had caused quite a stir. Sgarbi, in particular, had declared the “season of foreign directors” “over,” adding, “We have arrived, they are leaving. Why do I have to put a foreign director in the Uffizi? Has anyone ever seen that in the world? Have you ever seen a foreigner go to the Louvre?”

The undersecretary then had to clarify, saying that in the context of the meeting he was joking: "Regarding some of my playful and, I dare to presume, witty expressions, stimulated by Stefano Zurlo, I am beginning to realize that one can no longer joke, and perhaps not even talk.

I did not give report cards to anyone. I made jokes: period,“ Sgarbi said. ”And I want to reiterate, in the substance of their work,“ he continued, ”all my consideration for the ’foreign’ directors of some great Italian museums, such as the Uffizi, Capodimonte, Brera. I have always thought and declared that they have done well. But Italians or non-Italians, after two terms, by a law wanted by former minister Franceschini, they cannot be reappointed and therefore will no longer be directors of those museums. But everyone knows the work done with commitment by Eike Schmidt, with whom I have repeatedly worked in great harmony. The same I want to say, and I have already said, in the proper venues, for Sylvain Bellenger, an intelligent and imaginative director, whom I esteem and am a friend of, and with whom I have collaborated on several exhibitions. To him goes all my esteem and consideration; but I do not rule the time clock."

“I am sure that both Schmidt and Bellenger,” Sgarbi concluded, “will do many other things for Italian museums and for Italy, which they love more than the Italians, like the great foreign travelers who made it famous, French and German, like them: Montaigne, Winkelmann, Goethe, Stendhal. They are more Italian than the Italians. But jokes are one thing, the appreciation and gratitude I have for them is another. I am sorry to say that in the increasingly frequent misunderstanding of the two registers, I will probably have to give up the jokes. It is increasingly difficult to speak in Italy. The time of Pasolini, Flaiano and Tito Balestra is over.”

Sgarbi: Stop foreign directors in museums? Just kidding, I reiterate my esteem

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