VENICE LIKE POMPEII?

This is the bitter outburst from the director of church properties Antonio Meneguolo (photo), who in the pages of today’s Il Gazzettino di Venezia said that if financial resources do not arrive ‘we’ll end up like Pompeii’, or rather, not an abandoned city but a city with its artistic masterpieces falling to pieces. The outburst comes after the failure to raise funds to restore the ‘great painting of light’ attributed to Bartolomeo Vivarini in the church of Santissimi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. The truth is that there are no public funds, especially state funds, and those of the international private committees that have done so much to safeguard and restore the city’s historic monuments are also starting to dry up. A cry of alarm that affects all of Venice and also the St Mark’s area, which is always in need of restoration, such as that of the Procuratie Vecchie or works to safeguard St Mark’s Square from medium and low high tides, but this continues to be lacking. So a cry of alarm that involves the whole city and should certainly be taken very seriously.