The dinner organized in recent days by the influencer Cristina Fogazzi, known as the Cynical Beautician, inside the Braidense National Library and in the main courtyard of Brera, in Milan, turned into a case. The entrepreneur chose to use the famous Milanese museum as the location for a dinner for Veralab, her beauty products company which is about to expand into Spain. In recent days, a hail of criticism has rained down on social media: “How rude”, “how sad”, “an unseemly and unworthy spectacle”. Or: «It’s not just trash or bad taste, it’s a real attack» and «how bitter, everything really has a price». Responding to the controversy is now not only the person concerned, but also Angelo Crespi, director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, who claims the decision to grant the space to the Cinica Beautician.
«The prices are decided by the ministry»
On the pages of Corriere della Sera, Angelo Crespi explains that the dinner organized by the influencer brought “around 80 thousand euros, plus 15 thousand separately for the custodians” into the coffers of the Pinacoteca di Brera. The prices are set, the director specifies, not by the museums but by a regulation of the Ministry of Culture, which allows the leasing of places to «finance restoration, conservation and valorization». Crespi claims the decision to grant the art gallery to Cristina Fogazzi and points out that it is not an isolated case: «Abroad it is the norm, I am thinking of the mega Gucci dinner at the Louvre in Paris, but a thousand examples could be given. It has been a normal issue for ten years.” Obviously, specifies the director of the Pinacoteca di Brera, there is an upstream selection. And the Cinica Beautician event took place with the utmost respect for safety standards, leaving everything clean and tidy. In short, concludes Crespi, “we are not selling off culture and historical spaces”.
«This is classism»
Always from the pages of Courier, it is Cristina Fogazzi herself who intervenes on the matter, first of all to clarify that after the controversy “I am not well at all, I have not done anything bad to anyone”. Regarding the choice to use the Pinacoteca di Brera for the event of her company, Veralab, the influencer adds: «Why do I have to give money to a private individual? Here, I said to myself, they fall on the community: they will become restorations, personnel, services for those who study.” The Cynical Beautician, who leads an empire with a 70 million annual turnover, has a very precise interpretation of what happened. The controversies, he explains, are nothing more than a classist attack. «In those same spaces – he tells al Courier – a big luxury name received its guests, but I didn’t see any riots or indignation. If, however, dinner is given by the Cynical Beautician, then it’s not good. This is called classism.” And then again: «The problem is that I am a daughter of the people. Do I smell poor? They called me rich. Luckily there are rich people in a country where the social elevator has been at a standstill for years.”
On the cover: The influencer Cristina Fogazzi, known as Estetista Cinica, at the photocall of the Sanremo Festival, 5 February 2024 (ANSA/Ettore Ferrari)
