Berlusconi gets flak for covering up famous nude
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The Italian Government has been criticised by art lovers, academics and historians for covering the breast of a female nude in a reproduction of famous Renaissance painting Truth by Giambattista Tiepolo.
The La Repubblica Daily newspaper on Tuesday (local time) reported that the Government decision to tamper with a copy of Truth was met with public outrage.
The more modest representation now hangs in the press room in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office.
Chief of museums at the Vatican and former culture minister Antonio Paolucci says the Government's actions are foolish.
"Who in the world could have felt offended seeing Tiepolo's nude depicting truth?," he said.
Milan Art Gallery curator Sandrina Bandera said the Government's decision is displeasing.
"One cannot hide Truth, a subject which has been portrayed in the nude for centuries," she said.
Historian Andrea Emiliani condemned what he calls the Government's prudishness.
"The entire history of Renaissance art and the period that followed is full of nudes," he said.
Mr Berlusconi ordered the copy of the painting for the Government's Chigi Palace press room in May.
According to the ANSA news agency, the copy was touched up because photographers felt a nude breast would be an inappropriate backdrop and might offend television viewers.
-AFP
