The word “polemicist” was
invented for people like Vittorio Sgarbi, the conservative art critic and,
until last February, mayor of Salemi, Sicily. A typically polarizing Sgarbism
came during the winter holidays when he announced—echoes of “bunga bunga”—that
his vice mayor should be a young woman with no political strings attached.
Ever the curator, Sgarbi opened a
Mafia museum in the heart of Salemi’s historic centre in 2010. More Halloween
spook-house than cultural institution, the attraction that bore a
blood-splattered logo was made adults-only after the “slaughterhouse cabin”
display reportedly sickened two visitors.
To his credit, the mayor refused
a judge’s order to remove a newspaper blowup from the museum’s wall depicting
the arrest of Salemi natives Ignazio and Nino Salvo. Nino’s widow had made the
initial request, adding that her husband, though indicted, had died days before
his trial. (The Salvo cousins, entombed in the town cemetery, were decidedly
mafiosi by investigation.)
Do you
remember those houses for 1 Euro in Salemi, Sicily ?
Winter has
come and gone and here in Sicily summer has arrived. The sun is shining the
temperature is reaching 30’C but STILL we are waiting for final news about how
to apply for these 1 Euro houses in Salemi Sicily. Well MIPC bring you good
news that finally before the end of June 2009
