KEY POINTS:
For the first time in history, some of the most famous sites in Venice are swathed in huge advertisements.
On the Piazzetta of San Marco, the villain of the new James Bond film looms from a huge advertisement for Swatch. The facade of the Doge's Palace is obscured by ads for Lancia cars.
An investigation by the Art Newspaper reveals that the main firm handling the Venice sites is Plakativ Media, which is paying €3.5 million to restore the Correr Museum end of the piazza and in return gets a 232sq m advertising space - "half the size of an Olympic swimming pool" - on the scaffolding. The standard rent for the site is €50,000 a month, rising to €75,000 in February, when the Carnevale is on.
Renata Codello, the Venice superintendent whose permission is required for each ad, said she had turned down "masses of proposals, including one for the Italian football team".
She argued that she had "no choice" but to accept ads. "Funding from the Culture Ministry has been cut by more than 25 per cent, so I can expect no help from the Government."
- INDEPENDENT
