Carlo Ripa di Meana, former Biennale di Venezia president, dies at 88

Carlo Ripa di Meana, a prominent Italian politician, environmentalist, and cultural figure, died in Rome at age 88, just two months after the death of his wife Marina. His son Andrea announced the news to Ansa, recalling his father as a socialist and environmentalist politician, parliamentarian, minister, and president of the Biennale del Dissenso and Italia Nostra. Born in Pietrasanta in 1929 to a marquess family, Ripa di Meana was politically active from a young age, directing World Student News in Prague for the PCI from 1953 to 1956. There he met Bettino Craxi, who would be his best man in 1982. After working as a bookseller for Feltrinelli, he directed the journal Passato e Presente from 1958 to 1960 and joined the PSI central committee. In the 1960s he frequented the Club Turati in Milan. From 1974 to 1978 he served as president of the Biennale di Venezia, organizing the politically charged Biennale del Dissenso in 1977 during the Cold War. He was a socialist member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1984, European Commissioner for Culture and Environment from 1985 to 1992, and Italy's Minister of Environment from 1992 to 1993. He later served as national spokesperson for the Greens and president of Italia Nostra from 2005 to 2007. Paolo Baratta, current Biennale president, praised Ripa di Meana's bold initiatives at the Biennale, including editions dedicated to Chile, the Art of Dissent, and the suspension of the Venice Film Festival.