02/10/2009

Venice 'Ruined by Vulgar Ads'

John Follain in Rome, The Times

The mayor of Venice has been accused of selling out the city by allowing "vulgar" advertisements to be plastered over many of its famous buildings.

Renato Brunetta, Italy's civil service minister, said Massimo Cacciari, the centre-left mayor of the city, was to blame for "commercialising Venice and selling it at a loss".

"We need to make Venice not a Disneyland, but a centre of culture and technology," said Brunetta.

The adverts, which include one for the fashion chain Sisley on the Doge's Palace and a watch commercial portraying Richard Kiel, Jaws in the James Bond films, at the Correr Museum in St Mark's Square, "are the most vulgar in the world", said Brunetta. The hoardings were erected after masonry fell from the buildings.

The minister also accused Cacciari of "selling the family jewels", including Palazzo Grassi, on the Grand Canal, which has been turned into an exhibition space, and the Punta della Dogana custom house. He compared the mayor to the Venetian nobles who surrendered their city to Napoleon without firing a shot.

Brunetta also criticised Cacciari for giving priority to mass tourism over richer visitors. "Mass tourism has a very low added value and has a high social and environmental cost," Brunetta said. "It costs more than you get out of it." Every year 16m tourists visit Venice.
According to Brunetta, Venice must build an underwater railway linking the city centre to the airport, the railway station and the Lido, and complete a flood prevention barrier across the mouth of the lagoon.

The mayor defended the advertising hoardings, saying he had little choice. "They're the result of turning to private sponsors to pay for restoration," he said.

Anna Somers Cox, chairman of the Venice in Peril fund, said of the advertisements: "They're massive and they're absolutely terrible - it's like drawing graffiti on the Mona Lisa."