Unfortunately I had neither the creativity nor the nerve of Maurizio Cattelan from Padua, 64 years old, the serial provocateur famous as an artist, who managed to sell the banana hanging on the wall with a ribbon at auction for 6.2 million dollars sticker (photo below). Otherwise, looking into the fruit basket at home, we would all easily be millionaires (photo below).

Crazy spending in the city with 5 billion public debt

But at least, Justin Sun, 34 years old, the rich Chinese founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, had the decency to use his own money to buy the certificate that allows him to stick any banana to the wall and call it Comedian, just like the opera market of the richest Paduan emigrant in New York. Instead, I would like to talk to you about the equally expensive work of Gaetano Manfredi, mayor of the centre-left Pd-5Stelle-civic lists, who, using 200 thousand euros of public money, had Pulcinella’s “banana” planted in the central square of Naples (photo above, near to the title). They titled it “Tu si ‘na cosa grande”. With a little more courage, they could have called it “tu si ‘na cosa glans”.

The issue concerns us closely because at the beginning of 2022 the Municipality of Naples declared, between deficit and debt, a bankruptcy hole of 5 billion: 5334 euros for each inhabitant. Money that Italian taxpayers are periodically called upon to replenish with emergency measures. The latest plan to avoid disruption and therefore social chaos, launched by Mario Draghi’s government, cost us 1.3 billion, allocated by the state on a non-repayable basis. Then there is the other insult for the many creditors: because, in the tomb transaction plan approved to save the municipality, they will lose up to 60 percent of the value of their credits. Other than Cattelan’s banana.

But what is the city’s responsibility in all this? For example, it was calculated that only 2 percent of the fines given by the local police were collected: thus sustaining a hole for non-payments of 830 million. Another 260 million would not be forfeited due to the failure to collect rent on houses and properties owned by the Municipality. And so on.

Thus the Municipality survives thanks to state aid

So reading on NapoliToday that the installation dedicated to Pulcinella should cost taxpayers a total of 224 thousand euros – including set-up, supervision and inaugural performance – makes your head spin. And not only that. They presented it to us as the work of Gaetano Pesce, the designer sculptor who passed away on 3 April 2024. You can see the model of his very delicate project inspired by the Neapolitan character at the bottom of this article. Compare it with the image of the work near the title.

The official chronicles of the Municipality, however, do not tell us why, of all the noble parts of Pulcinella, from the cap, to the mask, to the immaculate white of his robe, they chose to represent his most hidden anatomy, despite the height of 12 meters . Mayor Manfredi also admitted this, who probably hadn’t made the commitment to check how the city’s money was about to be spent – once again: “I also thought what everyone thought” (in the photo below, the original model of Gaetano Pesce’s work dedicated to Pulcinella).

And the mayor has a personal advisor for contemporary art

Vincenzo Trione, the mayor’s personal advisor for contemporary art (a role that was certainly missing in the abundant municipal staff, even if it is carried out free of charge), closes the question thus: “We can say that Naples is the only city that invests on free contemporary art”. Of course, free: in fact the debts are paid by the State. And Silvana Annichiarico, Gaetano Pesce’s curator, defended the anatomical result that we all saw: “The important thing – she said – is that we talk about it”. And thank goodness.

What the statue of Pulcinella really looks like – by Mariano Lebro

We discover something more from an interview that Silvana Annichiarico herself gave to Repubblica in 2023. Can you tell us an anecdote about one of your most successful exhibitions? Here is the answer: “The Kama, Sex&Design exhibition that I curated in 2013 at the Milan Triennale: investigated that astonishing series of objects that have mimetic or allusive features both of the sexual organs of the human body and of erotic practices and entanglements”. At this point, dear Mayor Manfredi, we take the liberty of making a free suggestion: the next time you hire the same team of consultants, instead of using public money, try getting them sponsored by a sex shop.

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