he won

Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition won the Italian elections. This is another good reason to stay in London a bit longer. BBC article.

[img via repubblica.it]

Now playing: This Will Destroy You

Summer books

This has been a good summer for reading, first of all because I’ve discovered British writer Alan Hollinghurst (who is quickly becoming one of my favourite fiction writers), and secondly because I’ve finally got around to reading about looted and stolen art.

I really must thank two friends for these literary discoveries, if D. hadn’t suggested that I should read Hollinghurst’s The Swimming pool library, and C. hadn’t talked about The rape of Europa (The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War) I would have probably browsed aimlessly in bookshops for days.

Written by American historian Lynn H. Nicholas, the latter book focuses on  European collections looted by the Nazi regime before and during WWII, and on where and how such important artworks ended up in European and American museums and collections after the war. Lately there have been many cases of restitution of artworks to the legitimate heirs, and a consequent injection of extraordinary pieces into the market and the book gives a comprehensive background of the present situation’s causes. Interesting interview of Lynn H. Nicholas here.

While looking for The rape of Europa, I stumbled upon a great investigative journalism book titled The Medici Conspiracy, which deals with the illegal trade of antiquities from Italy, Greece and Turkey. Written by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, the book gathers all documentation regarding major scandals that involved smugglers, art dealers, international auction houses and corrupted curators in the last 20 years. From undiscovered ancient tombs to top-ranking museums, Watson and Todeschini trace the journey of exceptional works of art through the intricate system of dealers and collectors, giving an alarming insight into the corrupted side of the art market. A very interesting book, but also quite upsetting, especially for an Italian reader. The systematic robbery of my country’s heritage is infuriating, and the fact that Italian citizens take active part in all this makes me even angrier. For more details read Watson’s interview by Archaeology online.

Italian scandal

The recent launch of the Italian portal italia.it has caused a stir among professional web designers and experts. Shortly after the blog Scandalo Italiano was started. The following quote is from the English version of said blog.

€45 million invested foolishly by incompetents. That is the Italian webmonster www.italia.it, the Italian National Tourism Portal, recently put on-line by the government itself after three years of waiting. Thus this site: to document the scandal of an Italian webmonster. We are just getting started, and there is a lot of material being published and constantly updated on the Italian side of this blog. You will find any breaking news over there first. Stay tuned.

 

Human Rights and media

Today second lecture on Human Rights and Journlism, very interesting and I’m starting to understand the complicated system that revolves around the UN and all its organisations. We talked about the crisis in Darfur (UN 15 Dec 2006) and similar conflicts that are not covered (or, at least, not enough) by mainstream media. After I went to a lecture on photojournalism held by Italian photographer Dario Mitidieri. Impressive work.

Some days ago I watched the documentary Weapons of Mass Deception by Danny Schechter and I would suggest it to anyone who has ever had ‘doubts’ on the American media’s attitude towards the Iraqi war.

Bloggers and journalists

[comic by Doug Marlette]

Members of the Media Bloggers Association will be allowed in court for the Lewis Libby trial, to be held in the U.S. District Court, Washington D.C. This is a step forward for non-mainstream media. Read the whole story and more.

Kill Democracy! update

[Enrico Deaglio, editor of Il Diario and co-author of Uccidete la democrazia!]

The Italian parliament has decided to re-count last election’s votes (blank and not valid) all due to the release of Il Diario dvd (Uccidete la democrazia!) on possible scams during said elections. Well well, let’s see what happens next.

Read the Independent’s article.