News
Italy to Offer Tax Deduction for Book Buyers
The Italian government has unveiled a master plan for attracting foreign investment, and for some reason, it includes a tax rebate for people who buy books!
Italy
News
Italian Library Ransacked by Its Own Director
Another day, another depressing story about the deterioration of cultural patrimony in Italy. The subject this time? The Biblioteca dei Girolamini, a 16th-century library in Naples that was systematically looted by its director.
Art
An Italian Duke Visits the Met
The Met has dedicated an entire room to a prized portrait painted by Diego Velázquez titled “Duke Francesco I d’Este” (1638), on loan from the Galleria Estense in Modena, Italy.
News
Museum Plans to Burn 1,000 Art Works to Protest Cuts
Various news services are reporting that a museum in Italy is waging an "art war" in protest of funding cuts and they've started burning 1,000 artworks.
News
Devilish Giotto Discovery Ups His Art Historical Cred
In today's dose of art history geek news, we turn to the Daily Mail, which reports that "art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in the clouds of one of the most famous [13th C.] frescos by Giotto in the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi."
Art
Seeing Through the Crowds Part III at the 2011 Venice Biennale: The Unofficial Exhibitions
During the Biennale, innumerable numbers of events take place outside of the official Biennale grounds of the Giardini and Arsenale, especially from countries that couldn’t afford pavilions inside the Arsenale. They either rented out abandoned spaces near it, like the Iraqi pavilion did, or, if they
Art
Seeing Through the Crowds at the 2011 Venice Biennale Part II: The Arsenale
The Arsenale and its Corderie (Rope Walk) compose the remainder of the curatorial effort of the Biennale’s director. It is the sprawling nasty sibling of the Padiglione Centrale, and is somewhat of a chore to tackle. The entire layout of the Arsenale this year feels disjointed. On a whole, I felt li
Art
Quattro Volte: A Film That Slows Down Time
Le Quattro Volte will mess with your perceptions. No hallucinogenic drug or psychedelic trip, this movie creates a heightened sense of reality by slowing actions and narrative down, simplifying them into only their base elements. Events happen quietly in this film, if they happen at all. A man trave
Opinion
Gregory Crewdson Shoots Ancient Rome
Photographer Gregory Crewdson is largely known for his surreal suburban landscapes, posed and shot like something out of a postmodern Edward Hopper painting. But the artist also has a more sensitive side. In this series featured in the New York Times, Crewdson shoots a partly retired Italian movie s
Opinion
What an Ancient Roman Penis & Hand Transplant Looks Like
We already mention [http://hyperallergic.com/12906/italian-pm-gives-roman-statue-a-new-penis/] that the scandal-prone Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's ridiculous request to provide an antique Roman sculpture with a new penis and hand but The Telegraph shows us what the before and after of
News
Italian PM Gives Roman Statue a New Penis
It somehow seems fitting that the womanizing Prime Minister of Italy has suited an ancient Roman statue with a new penis: "Government officials confirmed today, however, that a valuable statue of the god Mars, on loan to the prime minister's office, had been fitted with an artificial penis … La Repu
Opinion
Cattelan Uses Italian Stock Market as Stage to Say "Fuck You Very Much" with “L.O.V.E.”
Artist Maurizio Cattelan has unveiled his latest public art project in Milan. It’s titled “L.O.V.E.” (2010), it’s 13 ft tall, it’s made of marble, it’s a hand with a giant middle finger, and it’s placed in front of the Italian Stock Exchange. Poetic, right? Meh.