It was an exchange of cultural gifts that should have fostered a greater sense of mutual appreciation between two cities, one in China, the other in Italy.
When Florence gave a bronze reproduction of Michelangelo’s David to Ningbo to help boost trade ties, the Chinese city reciprocated. The trouble was, it did so by donating two enormous and unprepossessing stone sculptures for which the Florentine authorities have struggled to find a suitable home.
The two pieces, a smiling warrior and a bureaucrat, are reproductions of Tang dynasty figures. Weighing in at 4 tonnes each and standing almost 4m tall, they bear little resemblance to the delicate statues associated with Florence.
Residents have made it clear they find them ugly and overbearing and do not want them on show. Ever since they arrived last year, the vast socialist realist monoliths have been stashed in a warehouse, gathering dust, despite instructions from the Chinese to place them near greenery and running water.
Officials in Florence cannot persuade resident committees to accept the statues.
“How about an international location, like the airport,” the committee chairman, Giuseppe d’Eugenio told newspaper Corriere Fiorentino after he refused the statues.
Matters would have rested there had it not been for the decision by the Chinese to send a delegation to Italy this month to inspect the cultural artifacts.
Officials are casting around for somewhere for the statues before the delegation arrives.
It was all a different story when the Michelangelo reproduction was unveiled to fireworks and live TV coverage in Ningbo.
Ningbo said the exchange reflected the “success of dialogue between East and West.”
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS