Cinema discounts and Shoah Museum. The first things Minister Sangiuliano wants to do.

Discounts for cinema (3 or 4 euros instead of 7), a Shoah Museum in Rome, and then new museums where it is possible to contaminate ancient and contemporary: these are some of the actions that the new culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, intends to take in the immediate future. He stated this overnight during the program Porta a Porta on Rai Uno.

Bruno Vespa’s interview with the minister began with some statements about fascism, which according to the minister is “the absolute evil,” while “the racial laws were a vomitous thing that we must condemn with all our strength.” Sangiuliano wanted to remark that he made his first official visits to the Synagogue and the Jewish Museum in Rome and then to Benedetto Croce’s home in Naples precisely to declare his anti-fascism: “As a first act,” the minister said, “I went to the Synagogue and as a second act to Benedetto Croce’s home, the headquarters of the Italian Institute for Historical Studies, because Croce was the promoter of non-Fascist intellectuals. However, Benedetto Croce, in addition to being opposed by fascists, was also opposed by communists and some anti-fascists. Antifascism is not only identified with communists.” The minister’s intention is to “have in Rome a great museum of the Shoah, which will serve as a memorial especially for the younger generations.”

The topic of returning to theaters after Covid was then touched upon, with a recorded speech by Francesco Giambrone, Superintendent of the Rome Opera House. “We come from a very difficult and complex period,” he said, “in which we felt a social responsibility to keep theaters and cinemas open. We have put this period behind us, but we are still experiencing difficulties, related partly to the expensive energy, partly to the difficulty in getting audiences back into theaters because there is still some fear compared to the time of the pandemic. To have reopened theaters is a great joy for us: theaters are places that hold a community together, that employ many people, that create economy and development. We are convinced that you think as we do, and so we believe we must work together, to make sure that our tati, our cinemas, the world of spet is as you see it today from this theater in Rome: alive, vital exempre full.” Sangiuliano then announced the allocation of a 10 million euro fund to get people back to the cinema: the fund will be used to introduce a ticket discount. “I am announcing that in the next few days,” Sangiuliano said, “there will be a measure that allocates 10 million euros to bring people to the cinema, a mechanism by which, through Spid, people will be able to download per-ticket discounts, which will pay 3 or 4 euros instead of 7. It is a drop in a big ocean, but let’s start with the small things. In the aftermath of World War II, De Gasperi made a large appropriation to rebuild La Scala Theater: the solons of the time said ’but how here, with collapsed houses, with homeless people, you make an appropriation to rebuild La Scala?’ De Gasperi explained that La Scala was a symbol and that through La Scala it was necessary to give identity to the rebirth of Italy after that ruinous war to which Mussolini had led us. I think we have to interpret the same spirit as De Gasperi: after the Covid war, because that’s how it was journalistically defined, we have to give people a symbol, an imaginary, so go back to the cinemas and theaters and that will be my commitment.”

The topic of political correctness was then touched upon: “I have always opposed the dictatorship of political correctness and I will always oppose it. Political correctness in our country has done enormous damage, including to the economy. On many fronts there has been a regression even from achievements made in the past: it is the cancel culture, the liberal dictatorship, something that corrodes the spirit and freedom. In culture, plurality counts: I don’t want to cancel and replace, I want to add other sensibilities and respect those that are there.”

Another question then came, again with another recorded clip, from Evelina Christillin, President of the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities Foundation: “We work so much with the public,” she said, “but we do a lot of research, training, social inclusion: we have more than 90 international collaborations with other museums, universities, universities. Research: the recent, most recent ICOM assembly in Prague in August identified research as one of the foundational directions for defining museum activities and the museum itself. What will the ministry do to activate research and to have joint management with the Ministry of Universities?” Sangiuliano recalled visiting the MANN in Naples after the Synagogue in Rome and the house of Benedetto Croce: “It is a museum where there are unique rarities in the world,” he said, “in my opinion it is the most important archaeological museum in the world. The PNRR has allocated 8.1 billion to culture, of which 6.8 are European and 1.46 are derived from the Italian state. We have a duty to spend this money quickly, well, honestly and efficiently, and an important part has been desitned to improve the museum system. We are the first cultural superpower on the planet. And if in the U.S. the secretary of defense counts so much, in Italy in my opinion the Ministry of Culture counts so much, because an important part of our GDP depends on culture: culture made attractive for a tourist market can be a factor in increasing several points of GDP.”

On the issue of free access to museums, raised by newly appointed Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi, the minister said he was “absolutely against it. It’s one thing to make a social policy that gives opportunities for young people or the elderly to have a very accented discounting, but to keep museums free, apart from that it doesn’t hold up on the income statement, but then it depreciates the value works that we have: I happened to travel and there are very expensive tickets in France, in England, in Germany, in Spain, to see things that frankly are not at our level. This morning incognito with my wife we went to the Borghese Gallery (then unfortunately I was recognized and director Cappelletti acted as my cicerone), I could not get in without a reservation and waited outside (the director then let me in, I wanted to pay for the ticket but it was not possible for me): I thought again about the fact that you find there Raphael, Titian, Bernini, a huge number of Caravaggio paintings, Canova. What casket of the world in a few square meters gives you this testimony of history? This is unique to our country that we need to work on very seriously.”

Finally, still on the subject of museums, it is the minister’s desire to create new ones, perhaps able to contaminate ancient and contemporary: “I think we also have to imagine, I’ll throw it out there, and I’ll study all the individual issues (I’m very methodical in my work), the creation of new museum spaces, perhaps contaminating with the help of the archistars, historical spaces with new ones. For example, at the MANN in February, very important new rooms will be opened (with an 11 million euro investment), and many artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum will be enjoyed and seen in these new rooms.”

Cinema discounts and Shoah Museum. The first things Minister Sangiuliano wants to do.

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