“Politicians nominating technocrats nominating politicans,” senator Francesco Storace indignantly tweeted on Tuesday, shortly after hearing that Giovanna Melandri, a current member of the Italian parliament with a long list of accomplishments in the culture sector, would be confirmed as the new president of the National Museum of 21st Century Art Foundation (MAXXI).
Storace was not alone in believing that the nomination was “an absolute shame.” Almost immediately after the news of Melandri’s nomination broke last week, party leaders from both ends of the political spectrum seemed adamant that Lorenzo Ornaghi, the current Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities, should take it back. Speaking to Il Messaggero, Maurizio Gasparri of the center-right People of Freedom party called Melandri’s nomination “a shameful decision.” Speaking to the Corriere della Sera, Giulia Rodano of the center-left Italy of Values party called it “an opaque nomination,” and Gian Luca Galletti of the Union of the Center coalition called it an “inappropriate choice.”
The objections, as many have put it, relate to the nomination’s timing and style. Professor Roberto Dainotto, who teaches Italian Studies at Duke University, was among those who believed until last week that the MAXXI Foundation would be taken over not by Melandri but by Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, an accomplished Roman banker who presided over the Italian pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. “The choice, and I don’t know how symbolic it was, was to give it either to economics or to politics,” he told ARTINFO, adding that he now agrees that the culture ministry’s decision was fishy.
“The objection is to the fact that politicians have redistributed this job to a politician,” he said. “Managing the MAXXI doesn’t need to be given necessarily to a politican, and it would be very hard not to find an art historian or museum director who could do the job well. I, personally, find it very disturbing.”
Complaints from members of parliament have been stern, but also very polite, and rarely without some acknowledgement of Melandri’s past service to the culture ministry. Born in New York and educated in Italy, Melandri has been admired for years as a cosmopolitan with firm connections to the international art community. As Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities between 1998 and 2001, she inherited plans to build a new contemporary art museum in Rome from her predecessor, Walter Veltroni, and was instrumental in drawing the celebrity architect Zaha Hadid to the project.
In May 2001, Melandri was unable to oversee the opening ceremonies because she had by then been elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Now, she will be resigning from parliament to accept her new job at MAXXI. That an Italian should move back and forth between such high poles of politics and culture is rare, but not unheard of (it happens that Veltroni, her predecessor, is a prolific author, and published three novels while serving as the mayor of Rome). Citing her experience as a fundraiser, several supporters (including at least one longtime rival in parliament) have been impelled to ask what the fuss is about.
“Why shouldn’t Giovanna Melandri be at the top of a museum of contemporary art?” the critic Giancarlo Politi wrote in a statement to ARTINFO. “Melandri, who in perfect English can speak with Gagosian, Saatchi, and the director of MoMA, or maybe Soros or Bill Gates? Who among our fearful intellectuals is able to get an appointment with these people and ask for something? For a long time, both politicians and professionals should have known that the president of a museum or any cultural institution should be entrusted neither by technicians nor enthusiasts, but by people who represent them and who can find the funds to ensure their existence.”
“I don’t understand all the scandal,” senator Adriana Poli Bortone, president of the Great South party, told Prima Pagina News. “Even though we’ve always fought on opposite sides, one certainly could not say that she isn’t a capable, intelligent person.”
Luigi Zanda, a colleague of Melandri’s in the Democratic Party, seemed to agree. “This is a matter of the presidency of the foundation, not the museum,” he told ARTINFO. “Yes, the museum should be led by technicians, by art historians, but for the foundation she seems qualified.” Speaking over the phone, Zanda seemed eager to stress the distinction between questions about Melandri’s personal resume and the complaints about her having been the beneficiary of a shady inside hire. “She is a very influential, judicious, and cultured woman, with many international connections that could be useful,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”