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Italy Covers Nude Statues to Avoid Offending Iran
Photo of Rome’s Capitoline Museum via Agenzia Anza.
As dusk approached on the eve of the First World War, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey looked out his window and said, “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Not only were millions killed and maimed in that brutal conflict, many of Europe’s great architectural and artistic treasures were damaged and destroyed.
Today, Europe’s leaders aren’t preparing to declare war on each other; they’re preemptively waving white flags to any dark-age potentate who glances their way. Well, not flags exactly, rather white panels:
Italian officials keen to spare the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, any possible offence on his visit to Rome covered up nude statues at the city’s Capitoline Museum, where Rouhani met Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister.
Photographs of Monday’s visit show both men standing near a grand equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor. Nude statues in the vicinity were covered by large white panels.
A spokesman for Renzi did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesman for the city of Rome, which manages the museum, said any decision regarding the ceremony with Rouhani and display of artwork had been made by the prime minister’s office.
The decision to cover the artwork was seen as a sign of respect for the Iranian president, according to the Italian news agency Ansa. Not everyone agreed.
“Respect for other cultures cannot and must not mean negating our own,” said Luca Squeri, a lawmaker in Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party. “This isn’t respect, it’s cancelling out differences and it’s a kind of surrender.”
If Renzi wanted to properly defer to the intolerant mullahs of Tehran, he should have covered the statues with full-length black chadors, stoned Cupid and Psyche for their sculptural affair, and tossed the Dying Gaul off a roof for homoerotic overtones.
What say you, Ricochetti — when does a decision like this move from a diplomatic nicety to cultural self-negation?
Published in Culture, Foreign Policy
What ever happened to ‘when in Rome’ ?
Hmmm I seem to remember an author of some repute having a book about this. I wish I could remember his name and the title of his book. Gee he seemed to have pretty much predicted this to be the fate of Europe in it too. I wonder who that man was.….
Why not meet someplace that doesn’t have nude statues? Why pick a museum in the first place? Don’t they have state office buildings?
But if you do meet there, don’t cover anything.
Perhaps we should ask John Ashcroft.
The long slow process of conversion begins. Mark my words, Rouhani will be taking Communion early in the second Trump term.
The locals must be laughing their [white panels] off!
Jon,
Politically this means little or nothing. Just another bit of international diplomatic theater. However, symbolically this is perhaps the most disgusting display of cultural suicide I have seen in a long time. The man being deferred to hangs people for the crime of homosexuality. He happily approves honor killing of raped women by their embarrassed families. He sees nothing wrong in beheading non-combatants on video for the crime of being Christian. He funds Jihadist madmen in their quest to kill and destroy around the world.
There is a kind of dirt that never washes off.
Regards,
Jim
Er, that place does not exist. This is Italy.
Don’t cover anything. A thousand times, this. It is enraging and humiliating.
I hope they don’t give offense by covering up the nude boys.
Well, the Italian Prime Minister certainly has nothing left to cover.
How precious. (And: What James Gawron said.)
The Guru stole my thunder. I have pretty deep contempt for prudes who can’t differentiate classical or ancient artifacts from Debbie Does Dallas.
So Pastor Saeed Abedini is imprisoned and tortured in Iran for daring to aid Christians hoping to pray in their own homes and Rouhani is feted while in Rome to ensure nothing offends his eye.
I suppose respect means different things to different cultures.
If we in the West had a better appreciation of our history, and if history for the Iranians didn’t begin in 570, I might think the Romans were covering up the other artwork to emphasize the heroic statue of a Western leader who knew how to deal with Persians over disputes in the Tigris Euphrates valley.
But, alas, it is just a story of boobage, boobs and barbarians.
Let’s see….our former Secretary of State goes to Iran and covers her head, universities install foot baths in restrooms, cabbies won’t take you because you bought a bottle of Champagne for your anniversary, female U.S. Navy hostages have their heads covered because, you know, respect for other cultures. Is it true everywhere? Apparently not.
What a strange choice of venue. What’s next? A diplomatic meeting in a gay bar, or a brothel?
I’m a contrarian on this particular issue. I don’t see a problem in taking some action to avoid offense to a foreign visitor. For example, if the German or Japanese PM is in Washington, maybe we could avoid driving them past the WWII memorial.
The meeting should have been held on Malta. Tea on the beach and as the mullah enjoyed the view a polite message was whispered into his ear: When the Mahdi climbs out of the well remind him that this is where Islam was turned back.
I do hope President Hillary Clinton wears a Berka at Iranian state dinners. And all the rest of the time.
Better white boxes than plaster fig leafs, which permanently damage the statues. That’s what the Vatican used to do.
The word craven doesn’t begin to describe this…
Every statue we cover just traps more greenhouse gases. You may have won this time evil mullah, but our global warming will eventually turn your deserts into deserts. Ha ha haha!
From the cited article:
17b Euros may be worth a little hypocrisy.
Would not it be easier to put a bag over Rouhani’s head and that of his entourage, just to be certain he does not glimpse culture in any form?
Oh &%#@#%!!! What I just let out as I read that is unfit per the CoC rules here. Blank Iran. Blank them. Why the hell did Italy do that? This is art, not porn. Tell Iran this is our culture and shove it if they don’t like it. Blank Italy too! Oh that ticks me off.
John Ashcroft must be feeling somewhat vindicated.
Umm, quick!
The panels! The panels! Find the damn panels!!!
Always nice to see the price tag on dealing with terrorists. However unless I am gravely mistaken very little of that trade is destined for the Vatican, so a completely irrelevant point with regards to this conversation.
Roman slatterns! Is this not uncovered hair?! How could Rouhani not be forgiven if he were to commit severe sexual transgressions in Rome after such blatant cultural insensitivity?
When I visit your home we do things your way; when we are at my house we do things my way. What’s so hard about that?
People do what they do for their own perceived benefit. Perhaps an article on how 17 b Euros worth of trade and investment is not worth covering up some statues because of the principles involved would be persuasive. Otoh, they might then write an article arguing that it was and why.
So it’s up to Italy – which might perceive Iran (and the rest of the Middle East) differently from how the US (or France, or Germany, or Japan) does.
I still think one would need to persuade them of one’s views rather than assuming that they share them.
I think the panel covered statues were at the Capitoline Museum, which is in Rome, not in the Vatican. The person who had them covered was the Prime Minister of Italy, not the Pope.