A picture of a Canova masterpiece thrown onto a dump is to accompany a strong US-backed drive to preserve Italy's immense art heritage.
The shock pic of the neoclassical master's famed statue of Paolina Bonaparte will be shown on RAI state TV until mid-October in a fundraising drive culminating in a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Reggia di Caserta near Naples.
The campaign will draw attention to art treasures in peril in every Italian city. Top sociologist Giuseppe De Rita is showing another string to his bow by organising the campaign, which he called "a Telethon for Italy's cultural heritage".
Supporting the drive will be a group of Italo-American entrepreneurs, tour operators, managers and art experts including the head of the New York Metropolitan Museum's Renaissance department, Keith Christiansen.
The association, which was set up three months ago, "is actively engaged in rallying more sponsors in the United States," said third-generation Italo-American businessman Gino Colangelo.
Among the monuments and works at the centre of the initiative are Castel Sant'Angelo and the Baths of Diocletian - both in need of major maintenance work - in Rome, the 'Biancone' Neptune Fountain in Florence which was vandalised last year, and, in Naples, Titian's famous portrait of Pope Paul III, which also requires restoration.
A copy of Canova's statue will also tour the cities whose works have been included in the initiative. Dubbed "Paolina in Wonderland', it will run alongside the dumped statue RAI ad whose slogan is "not taking care of art is like throwing it away".
