KEY POINTS:
After moving indoors 135 years ago, Michelangelo's David may be on the move again.
The ranking arts administrator in Tuscany has proposed shifting the famous image of manhood from the Galleria dell'Accademia in the centre of Florence to an as yet unbuilt culture centre further out.
The reason is the queues of tourists waiting to get into the gallery, often for the sole purpose of gazing at the marble that made Michelangelo famous.
The centre of Florence is full, says Paolo Cocchi, Tuscany's culture councillor, and "has already reached the point at which tourism becomes unsustainable". But Cocchi's proposal has elicited a torrent of invective from Florence's art elite.
To move the 4.1m-tall sculpture would be "extremely risky", said Franca Falletti, director of the Galleria dell'Accademia.
Local right-wing politicians smelt a nasty leftish sort of rat.
Paolo Amato, a senator in Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, detected ignoble ambitions behind the proposal: "[The idea of moving] Michelangelo's David is a promotional operation done for reasons of property speculation, with the sole object of increasing the value of the new auditorium project that is being backed by [the Culture Minister Francesco] Rutelli."
Riccardo Mazzoni, editor of Il Giornale della Toscana, the Florence daily, said it was "an absurdity dreamed up to give prominence to Mr Cocchi". "David is extremely fragile. Moving it would be very risky. It would be like moving the Mona Lisa from the Louvre to the outskirts of Paris."
Yet the man with more power than anyone else over whether the idea dies or becomes a serious proposal - Florence's culture councillor Giovanni Gozzini - was less dismissive. "An interesting and useful proposal which we can discuss," he said.
Florence is a remarkably conservative place. But by his choice of the word "sustainable", Cocchi touched a nerve. Italy's genius for conservation has brought the world to its door. But hop-on, hop-off tourism is causing terrible damage to Italy's most beautiful towns.
When David emerged from the artist's block in 1504, a committee of local artists, including Leonardo and Botticelli, met to decide where this unsurpassed symbol of heroic republicanism should be placed. Eventually, it took up its place outside the entrance of Palazzo Vecchio, where it remained for the next 360 years. For better protection, in 1873 it was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia.
- INDEPENDENT
