Sunday, November 7, 2010

Pompeii Collapse Brings Political Recriminations

The New York Times reports that the collapse of an ancient building in Pompeii has brought political recriminations against the Berlusconi Government. See
See http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/11/07/world/europe/international-us-italy-pompeii.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pompeii&st=cse

The fact is though that Italy's cultural establishment has been grossly underfunded for years and that cultural protection efforts have been hampered by an unresponsive bureaucracy, despite recent efforts at reform.

Hopefully, this event will help encourage more funding to shore up Pompeii and a redoubling of efforts to make the Italian cultural establishment more responsive to its primary mission of protecting Italy's unsurpassed cultural patrimony.

1 comment:

Ed Snible said...

Guardian UK: Pompeii building collapse prompts calls for privatisation of city: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/07/pompeii-building-collapse-italian-government