“the Riace Bronzes at the Louvre in exchange for the Mona Lisa”

Vittorio Sgarbi It is one of candidates of the peak European elections: among the most authoritative and disruptive figures on the national cultural, artistic, political and television scene (and beyond), today the famous art critic has reached Reggio Calabria aboard his Goatmobile (see scrolling photo gallery accompanying the article) promoting his candidacy on the list of Brothers of Italy.

In the Calabrian city of the Strait, Sgarbi is meeting citizens by visiting the historic center and many places of culture such as the “Alfonso Frangipane” Art Museum, the Bergamot Museum of Reggio Calabria and the Piccolo Museo San Paolo. In the public meeting at the Eubea hotel, Sgarbi he spoke with citizens, illustrating his idea of ​​politics and his vision of the future.

To the journalists’ microphones on the sidelines of the event, he relaunched one of his historical ideas: that of promote Reggio and the Calabria through short traveling tours of Riace’s bronzes in the older ones Museums of the worldThe Louvre Of Paris and the Metropolitan Of New Yorktherefore promoting this territory and at the same time carrying out cultural exchanges that would allow us to have a Reggio for that same period of time equally important assets such as the Mona Lisa.

“It is unheard of that a State that has responsibility for an extraordinary heritage which in Reggio has the most important thing in the world, which are the Riace Bronzes, is unable to send them to Paris or New York. The Riace Bronzes can go to the moon, but instead they invented limitations that prevent them from moving after they have been underwater for 2,500 years resisting the elements. They are just lies and lies, from the same superintendent who allowed one of the two Bronzes to be dressed as a transgender…”

“I suggest – he adds again Sgarbi – that they go to the Louvre in exchange for the Mona Lisa. The only thing in the world as important as the Mona Lisa are the Riace Bronzes: let’s do a twinning and bring the Mona Lisa to Reggio Calabria and the Riace Bronzes to Paris. It would be an honor for Reggio, no harm to anyone. It’s ridiculous to think that someone will take them away, that they won’t come back, it’s obvious that they would only be out for 4 months making an absolute publicity in Reggio Calabria, and then they come back and stay here and everyone comes here to see them. All the Capodimonte works have already gone to the Louvre, and they have made Italy great: from that moment on, attendance at Capodimonte has increased dramatically. The south rises again with culture, not with a false economy like the ILVA of Taranto: we value beauty, with culture we can eat and tourism proves it. We have Pompeii, Sybaris, the Riace Bronzes, they are absolute beauties. The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, sending the Bronzes there means taking them to the most important place in the world.”

In the end, Sgarbi criticized – responding to a journalist – the idea of Mayor Falcomatà to nominate Reggio as Capital of Contemporary Art: “the Minister has invented another consolation prize that is useless, the Capital of Contemporary Art in Italy is and will always be Venice with its Biennial, then there is the Quadrennial in Rome. You can also have beautiful exhibitions in Reggio, they are worth much more than a useless title. Yesterday they also told me Taurianova I don’t know what capital it is… they are all consolation prizes after the success of Matera. The idea that a city that does not have a history of contemporary art, that does not have a museum of contemporary art, should be chosen as the capital of contemporary art is crazy, nor is it useful: much better to be contemporary by sending the Riace Bronzes to Louvre instead of inventing something that doesn’t exist. It is a desire that has nothing useful and not even anything probable. Competing is legitimate, but it is not a solution. Let’s think about the contents, not about these superficial things. The real solution for Reggio is that all the authorities, from Occhiuto to Falcomatà, from right to left, decide to bring the Riace Bronzes to the Louvre in Paris“.