The idea of moving Michelangelo's David to a new site on the outskirts of Florence has sparked a lively debate in the Tuscan capital.
Tuscany's cultural chief Paolo Cocchi suggested the famous statue should be moved to the future location of the Maggio Fiorentino festival theatre so as to ease tourist pressure on the city centre.
''Moving David would be a chance for Florence to improve congestion,'' Cocchi said Wednesday.
''Keeping him in a museum where hundreds of tourists have to line a 45-cm wide pavement doesn't seem the best place for him''.
Cocchi said he had written to Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and Florence Mayor Leonardo Domenici to argue his case.
So far, he said, he had received no reply.
Rutelli's undersecretary Andrea Marcucci issued a statement saying it was ''not possible at the moment to formulate any judgement'' on Cocchi's suggestion.
Marcucci stressed that concern over the statue's safety would be the prime issue in considering any such move. The thought of taking David out of his newly improved surroundings at the Galleria dell'Accademia drew a sharp response from the head of the city's museums, Cristina Acidini.
Recalling that the city had spent millions of euros cleaning the statue and installing special anti-pollution systems in the Galleria, Acidini said ''I don't think the possibility of moving David should be raised in such an impromptu manner''.
She stressed that such an iconic work of world art ''can't just be used to aid the upgrade of an outlying district like the ex-station where the new 'music park' is envisaged''.
''There are very good historical reasons why the David is in the Accademia,'' she said, recalling the city's decision to make it a flagship gallery of the Renaissance master's work in the heart of the city, a few hundreds yards from the Duomo.
A senator in ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, Paolo Amato, called Cocchi's idea a ''bizarre stunt'' aimed at raising the profile of the Maggio Musicale's new Auditorium - a pet project of Rutelli's.
But the head of the Florence city council's culture committee, Dario Nardella, said ''the constructive sense of this proposal should be welcomed, at least as regards the idea of easing the tourist burden on the city centre''.
Florence culture chief Giovanni Gozzini said there should be no ''prejudicial'' resistance to the idea, which might ''substantively'' enhance a new cultural hub able to draw tourists away from the centre.
He said the city council would discuss the idea in late February.
The head of a leading tourism body, Andrea Giannetti of Assotravel, welcomed the idea because the narrow street where the Accademia is situated ''creates a bottle-neck''.
However, officials at the Accademia stressed it would be ''extremely risky'' to move the masterpiece out of the building that has been its home since 1873, when it was removed from its original position in front of Palazzo Vecchio.
''The home of David must be in the centre of Florence, for historical reasons,'' said Accademia director Franca Falletti.
Branding Cocchi's suggestion ''absolutely out of the question,'' she recalled the statue's fragility.
An eight-month restoration to get it ready for its 500th birthday in 2004 revealed structural frailty, especially in the ankles, and the continuing impact on its surface of the bad air and street dirt brought in by millions of tourists.
In the light of these risks, some art experts even suggested the statue should be moved to the Accademia's cellar. In the end the four-metre high statue, for centuries a symbol of virility, was placed behind a protective barrier of moving air.
Jets of air insulate it against the dust and particles which could corrode its delicate surface.
Special carpets remove dirt as visitors step up to admired it.
The statue was presented to the Florentine public in Piazza della Signoria in 1504.
It had been commissioned by the Florentine governors as an emblem of the city's pride and its ability, despite its small size, to defend itself against giants.
Michelangelo, who was still in his twenties at the time, chiselled the marble for three years and eventually created what soon came to represent the Renaissance ideal of manhood.
