Italian cultural world feuds over loan of Leonardo painting to Tokyo museum

By Ariel David

Associated Press Writer

ROME, ITALY (AP) — The government may be wobbling, the economy sputtering, but there is nothing like a good art feud to get Italians really riled up.

Politicians and literati are up in arms over plans to loan Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Annunciation’’ to a Tokyo museum, and one Italian lawmaker recently threatened to lash himself to the gates of the Uffizi Gallery to stop the painting from leaving its home in Florence.

The Fifteenth Century masterpiece was scheduled to be bundled up like a Russian doll in a series of protective crates and then flown to the Japanese capital. There it will be the centerpiece of a Leonardo exhibit at the National Museum running from March 20 through June 17 as part of “Italian Spring’’ — a slew of events meant to promote Italian culture and products in Japan.

Art historians and intellectuals from Florence, including filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli have signed a petition asking Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli to cancel the loan, amid fears the painting could be damaged.

“It’s absolute madness to send such works running around,’’ Zeffirelli said. “The minister who authorized this must be stopped.’’

Italian papers widely reported that Uffizi director Antonio Natali opposed the loan on safety grounds, but was overruled by the Culture Ministry. Natali did not return calls requesting an interview and the ministry declined to comment.

Paolo Amato, a center-right senator, has demanded twice in parliament that Rutelli desist from the project, and threatened to chain himself to the Uffizi’s gates on the day the painting was to leave. He said the loan exposes a priceless masterpiece to unnecessary risks and belittles its significance by using it in a commercial event.

“It’s like sending the ‘Mona Lisa’ to promote French cheeses,’’ he said referring to the Leonardo masterpiece kept in Paris’s Louvre Museum.

“Japanese already come by the thousands to see Florence,’’ Amato told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview. “I don’t understand why our paintings should become luxury gadgets in promotional exhibits.’’

Conflicts over managing and showcasing Italy’s countless cultural treasures are frequent. Loans of masterpieces to foreign countries are a known anxiety factor, while projects in Italy by outside artists can produce a frenzy of outrage.

A planned new exit for the Uffizi by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki was scrapped in 2005 when medieval ruins turned up at the site, and after art critics described the project as a slatted bed frame or a bus-stop shelter. American architect Richard Meier restored Rome’s Ara Pacis, a museum housing an altar built more than 2,000 years ago. Italian critics compared the blocklike structure of glass, soaring columns and reinforced concrete to a Texas gas pump or a car park.

The “Annunciation’’ is one of Leonardo’s early works, painted between 1472 and 1475 when the master was in his early 20s. It depicts the archangel Gabriel revealing to the Virgin Mary that she is pregnant.

While the transfer is technically challenging, the “Annunciation’’ is no more fragile than other paintings from the period, said Roberto Boddi, a restorer who was part of the team preparing the masterpiece for its travels.

“There are always risks, but we have taken measures for every foreseeable problem,’’ Boddi told The AP by telephone from Florence.

The 6½-foot-long, 3-foot-tall painting was encased in three crates, two of wood and one of aluminum, filled with shock-absorbers and high-tech sensors to monitor humidity and stress levels. A police escort flanked the truck carrying the painting to Rome’s main airport, which is named after Leonardo.

Once in Tokyo, the painting will be displayed behind a bulletproof glass and encased in a crystal and steel case built to protect it from seismic activity in one of world’s most earthquake-prone countries.

“It will survive even if the building collapses,’’ Boddi said.