Vincenzo De Bellis: End Political Appointments in Italian Museums

In an interview with Vittorio Zincone for Sette, the Corriere della Sera insert, Vincenzo De Bellis, former director of Miart and now curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, calls for an end to political appointments in Italian museums. He urges Culture Minister Dario Franceschini to complete generational turnover in museum directorships and ensure stable governance with a clear separation between political and technical/artistic choices. De Bellis also asks Economy Minister Giancarlo Padoan to lower VAT on artworks to make the Italian market more attractive, noting that identical works cost 10% more in Italy than abroad. He attributes the exodus of Italian curators to foreign museums to a lack of professional curator positions in Italy, despite a generation of experienced independent curators. Asked which Italian museums he would like to direct, he names Madre in Naples, Museion in Bolzano, and Mart in Rovereto. He identifies Massimiliano Gioni, Vicente Todolì, and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev as the most influential curators. As future Italian art stars, he points to Lara Favaretto, Roberto Cuoghi, Pietro Roccasalva, and Diego Perrone, describing them as less pop and more reflective than predecessors like Cattelan and Beecroft. To inspire a child's passion for art, he would choose a Balloon by Jeff Koons; for his own home, anything by Thomas Schütte.