Billboards on Piazza San Marco

The images are appalling: huge banners and billboards plastered on the Doge's Palace, the Piazzetta, and the Bridge of Sighs. What's going on? The Art Newspaper explains how changes in the law are drastically altering the face of Venice:

The law allows the scaffolding on public buildings under restoration to carry advertising so long as the superintendent considers that it does not "detract from the appearance, decorum or public enjoyment of the building". While the existing ads in Venice have aroused local and international protest, Venice superintendent Renata Codello insists that she has been very discriminating.

It might be argued that the deal to sell advertising space is needed to bring in desperately-needed funds for essential maintenance and restoration work. But anyone familiar with Italy knows that when the scaffolding goes up, it has a way of staying up -- often for long after the projected or even actual completion date for the work. At one point when I was spending nearly every summer photographing monuments and artwork in Italy, I gave serious consideration to doing a photo-essay of green-shrouded churches, sculpture, and palazzi, to be title Italia in restauro. It took the Papal Jubilee of 2000 to get the authorities to de-shroud the monuments of Rome, many of which had remained covered even though active restoration work had come to a halt years before. What would it take to uncover Venice, then, now that there is such a powerful financial incentive being added to keeping the scaffolding up?

Posted by David on November 25, 2008 8:52 AM