How much for the Michelangelo?
February 5 2014
Picture: Wikipedia
Wow, the Italian government really is crazy - today, the country's auditor general announced that it's suing Standard & Poor for issuing a negative credit rating, on the grounds that the agency didn't take into account the value of Italy's art during a recent assessment. The damages sought are up to £194 billion. From the FT:
Notifying S&P that it was considering legal action, the Corte dei Conti [Italy's auditor general] wrote: “S&P never in its ratings pointed out Italy’s history, art or landscape which, as universally recognised, are the basis of its economic strength.”
Which presumably means that, if it is demanding all the art be valued as a national asset, the Italian government might one day potentially consider selling David?
Update - a reader asks:
Is that why Gordon Brown, when Chancellor, insisted that national collections add the value of acquisitions to their balance sheets?
Update II - a reader adds:
If the Italians were successful it could strengthen the Scottish case to include national collections as assets in a devolution divorce settlement from a less united UK.
I open the bidding for David at one million lire.
Re the Scots, the latest legal thinking shows that in the event of a yes vote for independence, Scotland will get a share of UK assets, but not UK institutions. So the question is, is the British Museum a UK institution, or an asset? If the latter, then Alex Salmond will be hot-footing it down to Bloomsbury with his bag of swag...
Update III - another reader alerts me to the news that in Italy, they are apparently no longer teaching art history in schools.
