MACRO director Giorgio De Finis accused of stealing articles for museum catalog

Giorgio De Finis, director of the MACRO museum in Rome, has been accused of compiling a catalog entirely from articles about himself without obtaining permission from the authors or publishers. The volume, published by Bordeaux Edizioni, contains hundreds of pages of previously published texts, including those from Artribune. De Finis allegedly instructed staff to gather all articles about him and produce a book for the museum's inauguration on September 30, 2018, priced at €18. The publication was made without any authorization, copyright agreements, or public tender. Claudia Pecoraro, the volume's curator, reportedly stated that they did not seek permission because authors might have refused. The incident has sparked outrage over intellectual property rights and the misuse of public funds, as the museum is run by the Comune di Roma. Artribune's editor, Massimiliano Tonelli, announced they will not pursue legal action to avoid burdening Roman taxpayers, but criticized the act as symptomatic of broader incompetence and disregard for the law. The article notes that De Finis previously ran the illegal Maam museum in a squatted building, for which the Italian state was ordered to pay €28 million in compensation to the private owners.