What is it about Florence that makes people love it so? For many, it is the city's world-renowned art treasures-the determined look in David's eye, Botticelli's fluttery-draped blondes, Leonardo's crystal landscapes. It is the bronze of the baptistry doors and the story behind how they got there in the first place.

Now consider that many of these masterworks wouldn't be visible if it weren't for generations of dedicated arts patrons. Take a stroll through the Uffizi and you will see restorations financed by individuals and groups from all over the world-from Tokyo to Texas. That's why, when an American, Contessa Simonetta Brandolini d'Adda, realized the need for the conservation and protection of Florence's cultural heritage, she thought of her fellow Americans. After 30 years of living in Italy, she recognized the special relationship her countrymen had with Florence and decided to get them involved.

And so Brandolini and her sister, Renee Gardner, created Friends of Florence. On its way to becoming one of the most dynamic foundations in the art restoration world, Friends of Florence is an international nonprofit based in the United States. The organization's goal is to preserve the legacy of Florence-a legacy that includes the humanistic works and ideals of the city that are in danger from neglect or sporadic preservation. In order to combat this phenomenon and offer concrete solutions, Friends of Florence invites art lovers from all over the world to help preserve and enhance Florence and its surrounding area by becoming patrons.

As the history books have taught us, Florence has a long-standing tradition of patronage-its treasures exist today thanks to famed patrons of culture, art, music, literature and scholarship like the Medici, Strozzi, Pitti, and other countless families who left their mark on the city by supporting the arts. Today's Friends of Florence patrons may not end up with their name on a palazzo, but they do have the opportunity to experience the glories of Florence once a year with a week of educational programs, including lectures by historians, art historians and restoration experts; visits to private collections; and opportunities to see their projects in action. These yearly in-depth visits are a way for those who give to feel more connected, to directly participate and feel a sense of civic pride for their adopted city.

However, Friends of Florence has more than just history on its side. Thanks to her successful real estate company, Brandolini has come into contact with some of Tuscany's most famous part-time residents, including Mel and Robyn Gibson and Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, as well as other high-profile names like Bette Midler, Franco Zeffirelli and Zubin Mehta, who sit on the advisory committee. These and other well-known individuals have lent their support to the Friends of Florence, and in some cases have given more than just time and publicity (for example, look closely at the small plaque beneath Alessandro Allori's 1575 Mannerist altarpiece, Madonna Enthroned, in the Accademia and you will see the Gibsons' names).

The organization's first big project came in 2002, when it restored all 10 pieces of the marble statuary in Piazza della Signoria's Loggia dei Lanzi, a space often referred to as Florence's outdoor living room, which includes Giambologna's sixteenth-century masterpiece The Rape of the Sabines. This was followed by the restoration of 22 paintings in the Tribune of Michelangelo's David, including works by Allori, Pontormo and Portelli, in 2003. By the time David's 500th birthday came around the very next year, Friends of Florence found that its reputation for efficiency had spread: the Dutch nonprofit financing the restoration of the famous statue was looking for a quick 200,000 euro to pay for the diagnostic testing to determine how restoration would precede and called on the Friends of Florence. Within 24 hours, Brandolini's dynamic organization to come up with the cash.

Yet the Contessa admits to having a soft spot for the many lesser-known art works that need attention just as much, if not more, than those with big names. She notes that the organization's mission is more than just preserving art: it is about fostering relationships and creating connections between all those who love Florence-and are working to protect it. When Friends of Florence sponsored the restoration of the Uffizi's Sala della Niobe-which houses a collection of 17 third-century AD Roman marble figures representing Niobe and her children fleeing from the gods-it was the first time that a group of people, including restorers, historians, marble workers and administrators were all in the same room, at the same time, working together for a common goal.

These images of collaboration and of dedication to an ideal describe the heart of Friends of Florence, tales about the work itself, the restorers carefully putting the statue back together, the patrons choosing the pieces that most inspire them. In upcoming issues, these stories will be the focus of The Florentine's new Friends of Florence series, monthly articles that go behind the scenes of this unique organization to see how it works and what it is doing to meet the twenty-first century challenges facing Florence's exceptional art.

By Alexandra Lawrence

Once past Michelangelo’s David, now as glorious as he was at the time of creation, thanks to a deft recent cleaning, the visitor to Florence’s Accademia museum encounters a small surprise. Those grand altarpieces that for decades bore discreet witness to the sculpture’s power are now, themselves, vividly present. Even before David’s successful treatment, Italian conservators had quietly conducted another, equally extensive and delicate project: the restoration of 22 of the museum’s major 16th-century Florentine altar paintings, among them splendid, idiosyncratic masterpieces by Alessandro Allori and Agnolo Bronzino, and the little-known Carlo Portelli’s greatest work, the bizarrely beautiful Dispute on the Immaculate Conception. Still more unexpected for the visitor is the discovery – beneath the object labels for Portelli’s picture and the others – of the names of American, Australian and British benefactors, most unfamiliar, some quite famous. These underwriters are the Friends of Florence, a Washington-based group that, without much fanfare, has provided the funds for the conservation of many of the Italian city’s treasures and, with the input of local art administrators, has developed a long and ambitious wish-list of future projects.

Founded only eight years ago by a dynamic, high-end real- estate broker and self-appointed civic-booster, Contessa Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, and her sister, Renee Gardner, the Friends have grown to include technology wizards, bankers and financiers, wine barons, radiologists, rock stars and movie actors. Film director Franco Zefferelli and conductor Zubin Mehta sit on the advisory board. Inspired by the good works of Save Venice and the American Academy in Rome, Contessa Brandolini d’Adda, an American who has lived in Florence for more than 30 years with her Italian husband, realised over a decade ago that ‘nothing like these organisations existed in Tuscany – no permanent foundation for the preservation of works of art had been established after the 1966 floods’. Determined to change the situation, she spoke to many Italian and American colleagues and ‘polled a lot of people who might support art conservation projects’. She drew the Friends initially from prominent local vintners, investors and patricians – the Antinori, Caprotti, Frescobaldi and Rucellai clans – and then approached her colleagues in the Young Presidents Organization, a group of very bright people who had founded successful businesses by the time they were 30. From the YPO she recruited the likes of Ellie Cullman, a prominent New York interior designer, Bobby Sager, a colourful Boston businessman who travels the Third World establishing micro-enterprises to benefit the poorest of the poor, Daniel Schwartz, an ebullient, 30-something computer entrepreneur, and numerous other lively and creative people – all of whom, it so happens, love Florence.

The Contessa’s real-estate activities, particularly her sale of Tuscan villas, have led to her meeting and befriending several celebrities, including Mel and Robyn Gibson and Sting and Trudy Sumner, who, it turned out, shared her interest in Florentine painting and sculpture and similarly wished to guarantee their preservation. The stars have not only lent their names to the cause, but also have in one case written an ample cheque for the conservation of specific works. Beneath Allori’s monumental altarpiece of 1575 depicting the Virgin and Christ Child with a convivial assembly of saints (Fig. 7) is a small card bearing the Gibsons’ names.

For most Friends, their devotion to Florence extends well beyond aesthetic appreciation. Ann O’Brien, a Chicago board member and executive at Bank of America, explains that, ‘Florence is a city of the world, not just of Italy. Its history has influenced all of our lives – and its art reflects that history.’ The geniuses and enlightened patrons of the renaissance left less an embarrassment than a burden of riches, well more than the Italian government can now afford to maintain. O’Brien believes that there is an internationally shared responsibility for protecting this heritage, which, of particular interest to her, includes the origins of the modern banking system.

After undertaking, as a first project, the restoration of Giambologna’s illustrious Rape of the Sabines and other sculptures in the Loggia dei Lanzi, the arcade facing onto the Piazza della Signoria, the Friends turned their attention to the Accademia. They saw to the cleaning of the altarpieces and, soon after, as their third project, paid for the diagnostic testing that was necessary for determining the manner in which the colossal David could be safely cleaned. Celebrating the completion of that treatment in 2004, the group dined in the Accademia one evening at a candlelit table set for 100, extending from David’s feet through an allée of Michelangelo’s unfinished marble Slaves – a scene of such serene and intimidating beauty that even the ever-articulate actor-comedian Robin Williams, among the guests, appeared stunned, in quiet awe.

The Friends have come to expect such elegant and moving occasions. At their first major gathering in Florence, the historian and best-selling author Ross King led a private tour of the cathedral and Brunelleschi’s dome, the subject of one of his fascinating recent books. On another occasion, verses from a new translation of Michelangelo’s sonnets were recited to the Friends as they sat in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, after having viewed the tombs Michelangelo created for the Medici family. Some of the lines, intended for the poet’s companion Tommaso Cavalieri, seemed to acknowledge the Friends’ benevolence: ‘it is a comfort to find one, Like you, whose fate is always in the sun, And share some part of what is your whole life’.

Capping off these special opportunities were banquets hosted by aristocratic Italian board members and their families – Marchese Piero Antinori, Marchese and Marchesa Ferdinando and Rosaria Frescobaldi and their sister-in-law Marchesa Bona Frescobaldi – who, naturally, provided some of their very best wines. Among the festivities at the luncheon in the villa grounds of Duke Forese and Duchess Grazia Salviati, whose lineage predates the Medici, was the chance for guests, with expert guidance, to try their hand at marble carving. It seemed fitting recreation for a group that earlier in the day had descended into the marble quarries of Carrara, to see from where the marble block for Michelangelo’s David had been extracted.
For the Friends’ fourth project, Dr Antonio Paolucci, the scholarly and highly progressive soprintendente of fine art for the Tuscan region, and director of the Uffizi, recommended the restoration of the gallery’s ancient Roman Niobe group, 17 marble figures of the mortal Niobe and her children contorted in various attitudes of distress and pain, as the arrows of the gods Apollo and Artemis rain down upon them. . Tragically, the 3rd-century sculptures came under another, more recent attack and were among the works in the Uffizi Gallery most damaged in the 1993 bombing of the museum. With various Friends financially ‘adopting’ each of the sculptures, their treatment has just been brought to completion.

.Appreciative of the Friends’ contributions, some modern Italian producers of well-crafted luxury merchandise, notably Bulgari and Frette, have lent their support and premises as well. Such good will has accelerated the Friends’ fund-raising activities: €200,000 was amassed in 24 hours for the David, and an event in the past year held in the chic Chicago restaurant Spiaggia generated over $280,000. To date, the Friends have raised, all told, more than $2m. Because they have few overheads, with the board members themselves performing the lion’s share of the work, roughly 95% of the funds has gone directly to the projects. Despite these impressive sums, Michael Collins, a Friends’ founding board member and Florida-based, fund-of-funds manager, points out that ‘it is unbelievable what a great difference you can make with relatively few dollars. After all, with not very much, we were able to help restore all of the sculptures in the Loggia dei Lanzi.’

With this momentum behind it, the group has trained its sights on its next major restoration projects, including Lorenzo Ghiberti’s magnificent 15th-century Gates of Paradise from the Baptistry, Bartolommeo Ammanati’s sprawling, late-16th-century Neptune Fountain in the Piazza della Signoria, the so-called Garden of the Little Island in the Boboli Gardens and the glorious Tribuna of the Uffizi, the octagonal display room that has held for over four centuries many of the masterpieces of the Medici grand ducal collection. Suggestions and requests are increasingly coming from the Florentine museum directors themselves, who, not accustomed to private donations, were, according to Collins, ‘at first skeptical of the FoF’s intentions, but have now become much more proactive’.

Given the critical need for conservation work, Contessa Brandolini d’Adda foresees a continued geographic expansion of both the Friends’ group and their mission. ‘Ideally’, she notes, ‘we would like to have strong chapters in many cities where we have members, not only in Chicago, but in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and, perhaps, Atlanta’. She projects that the group will eventually extend its largesse to other parts of Tuscany, including Lucca and San Gimignano, ‘where there is such an abundance of artwork that also must be protected’.

All of this is welcome news to Dr Cristina Acidini Luchinat, the astute and energetic deputy soprintendente of fine art for Tuscany and Director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure (a museum of precious stone work and laboratory for bronze sculpture), who recently proposed to the Friends the restoration of Giovanni Francesco Rustici’s early-16th-century sculptural group of St John the Baptist, the Levite and the Pharisee above the north portal of the Baptistry (Fig. 10). The Friends have enthusiastically decided to take on this productive partnership with the Opificio, which will, at the same time, direct the conservation of the complementary group of Baptistry bronzes by Vincenzo Danti: St John, Salome, and the Executioner. Thanks to the Friends’ ‘crucial help’, says Dr Acidini, ‘it is a great season for monumental bronze statues’

Larry J. Feinberg is Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Curator in the Department of European Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago.

FLORENCE, Italy - Face to face with John the Baptist, Leon Dreimann couldn't say no.
In a matter of minutes, the business executive was pledging thousands of dollars for a face-lift of the green-streaked Renaissance bronze and its two biblical buddies, the Levite and the Pharisee, who stood together for 500 years above this city's elegant Piazza del Duomo.
"These are truly beautiful," Dreimann, the former chief executive of Salton Inc., said as he and other potential donors stood in a small workshop to survey the towering 15th Century grouping known as "The Sermon of John the Baptist." "You see a lot of statues, but you can tell when there is a project that is a cut above."
Dreimann's moment of generosity illustrates how Florence's world-famous Renaissance treasures are increasingly benefiting from American philanthropy -- and in many cases from the good wishes of well-appointed Baby Boomers.
Friends of Florence, a U.S. non-profit group that has focused on art-in-need since 1998, is a wellspring for serious private gifts to Florence's most prestigious galleries. The organization started small -- with restorations of statues and paintings through individual sponsors at the Uffizi and Accademia galleries -- until it announced plans to repair and buff Michelangelo's "David" for its 500th anniversary in 2004.
Money poured in from donors for that historic restoration. The little foundation, which today has funded $3 million in repairs, realized a growing constituency and, in particular, a wealth of interest from art lovers in Chicago.
Chicagoans have embraced the Florentine cause. Dreimann, the man behind the George Foreman grill, and his wife, Joy, a fundraiser who engineered a record $300,000 benefit for Chicago's Goodman Theatre last year, were among those who jumped at the chance to sponsor a painting at the Accademia. Eventually, 22 paintings that flank "David" were restored, many through Chicagoans' largesse.
During a recent Friends-sponsored trip to Florence, Milan and Paris, the Dreimanns, of Lake Forest, pledged another $25,000 toward the bronzes by Giovanni Francesco Rustici, repairs that are estimated to cost $750,000.

Art worlds converge

This new restoration drive began as the Chicago and Florence art worlds, in some ways, converged: Benefactors in Chicago contributed substantial cash to the renovation of the world-renowned Gates of Paradise bronze doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Panels from the doors, delicately rendered bronzes of biblical scenes, are on display at the Art Institute in Chicago until Oct. 14.
When the exhibit closes, the panels, on a once-only tour, will travel to New York and Seattle and then be permanently sealed and reinstalled in Florence.
There are other examples of American generosity toward Italian landmarks -- Save Venice Inc. was born after the 1966 flood in that water-locked city -- but Friends of Florence is known as a particularly cost-efficient investment.
Organizer Simonetta Brandolini d'Adda, an American who studied art history in Italy and then married and stayed, volunteers her time to work between the foundation and galleries. Nine years later, the woman who founded Friends of Florence has never hired full-time staff.
An owner of a real estate company that caters to Americans, Brandolini said she was always struck at the depth of her clients' interest in Florence and its art. She began exploring whether her well-traveled customers, who could afford second homes in Tuscany, would contribute to Italian culture.
At first she devised art-based tours for those willing to pay double the actual cost -- and then were willing to donate half to art restoration. Eventually she found a nucleus of art enthusiasts, Italians and Americans, who wanted to serve as trustees of Friends of Florence and help raise serious money for the arts.
The foundation's help, deemed unorthodox in Italy, is highly regarded by art professionals here based on some simple economics: Italy just doesn't have enough money to pay for the upkeep of all its treasures. Save for a few corporate examples -- designer Laura Biagiotti has underwritten several landmark restorations in Rome -- the state alone funds upkeep and maintenance of its heritage. Italian tax laws, often skirted by moneyed scofflaws, offer no incentives to supporters of the arts.
Private philanthropy in Florence was minimal until the Friends of Florence raised expectations. "The list of things that Friends of Florence has done for us is priceless," said Antonio Natali, director of the Galleria degli Uffizi.
"The state does what it can, [but] thank goodness we have Friends of Florence and other donations to help us cover the bills." Brandolini said the foundation continually evaluates what projects can draw in private dollars and public enthusiasm.
"[Friends of Florence] started with friends -- and with the philosophy that this would be educational, not social," she said. "We're all essentially like-minded in spirit ... and we're still small enough to keep our projects very hands-on."

'Back to life'

Ann O'Brien, a managing director for Bank of America, met Brandolini when she was seeking a vacation rental. Today the Chicagoan is a Friends board member. Even before Dreimann had a chance to see the John the Baptist, O'Brien had agreed to pay half the bill for the single statue's repair.
"I'm Catholic and I sort of grew up with John the Baptist,"
O'Brien said. "I like the work. I like the connection to the baptistery and when I saw them up close, it hit me. I loved it. And it's wonderful to see something come back to life." O'Brien said the foundation has found a niche in Chicago -- even though the much-loved art is an ocean away.
"People bring people," she said about auctions and benefits linked to the work. "There are many people here who have an interest in art that goes back to their school days. People also understand the worth of the Renaissance and that much of that art came out of this little radius."
Friends of Florence enthusiasts often find themselves in some exclusive corridors. On a recent trip, they dined by candlelight at the Uffizi in a hallway overlooking the Duomo, and were feted at private villas of sponsors. One night, they sat in a small room of the Uffizi as a curator presented centuries-old drawings by a young Leonardo da Vinci. They slipped into Milan for a private viewing of "The Last Supper" with humanities professor Gary Radke of Syracuse University detailing, as he did throughout their trip, the finer points of a Leonardo masterpiece.
Nancy Moreland and her husband, Jeff, former general counsel for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, lived in Chicago for 20 years. Now retired and living in Washington, D.C., the couple are spending some of their leisure time figuring out how their money can be turned into a legacy.
Friends of Florence, they said, offered them more than a vacation. "You have to be willing to give money to be part of these tours," Jeff Moreland said.
"You have to want to restore the art in order to be part of this. ... But this, the contributions, also has to do with our love of Florence."
"I haven't been to an art history lecture since college," Nancy Moreland said with a laugh. "But these trips have a whole different purpose as an adult. You don't have to look at the slide and try to remember a detail that will get you through the exam." .

By Christine Spolar | Tribune foreign correspondent
October 7, 2007
cspolar@tribune.com

Washington, DC – When funding from the Italian Ministry of Culture was exhausted, U.S.-based Friends of Florence stepped in to complete the restoration of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous Gates of Paradise, specifically the restoration of the decorative door frames and three-dimensional busts which adorn the door frames. Three panels from the Gates and elements from the door frames comprise an exhibit sponsored by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. When the panels and frame elements are returned to Florence in 2008, Friends of Florence will provide financial support to reassemble all the panels into the Gates of Paradise’s frames. The doors will ultimately remain indoors in the Opera del Duomo Museum in Florence. Italian authorities have stated the panels will never leave Italy again. Friends of Florence is a 501-c-3, not-for-profit organization, based in the United States, dedicated to preserving and enhancing the cultural and historical integrity of the arts located in the city and region of Florence, Italy. Among the Friends of Florence’s previous major restoration projects are: Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabines and other sculptures in the Loggia della Signoria; 22 paintings surrounding the David in the Accademia; diagnostic work on the David; and, the Uffizi’s Niobe Room. Currently under restoration is Giovanni Rustici’s early 16th-century bronze sculptural group of statues including St. John the Baptist from the north portal of Florence’s Baptistry.

MEDIA ADVISORY CONTACT:
Samantha Lasky
(202) 257-5327 slasky@sjlgroup.com



Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise Exhibited in the United States -- one time only.

High Museum of Art
Atlanta, GA
April 28 – July 15, 2007

The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL
July 28 – October 14, 2007

Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY

Our youngest benefactor

"Photo of a group of students from the Cistercian School in Dallas who donated $2500 to Friends of lorence for the restoration of the ancient statue here photographed of Marcus Aurelius plus the cleaning of two more ancient statues all part of the "Twelve Caesars Project" in the Uffizi Gallery. Each of these young donors earned the money contributed to the Foundation through their work in cleaning gardens, babysitting and other chores..

Giving David a Bath

A group of modern-day patrons helps preserve Florence's extraordinary heritage.

BY MIMI MURPHY

FLORENCE'S ART TREASURES are world-renowned. But you wouldn't be able to see the masterworks of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and so many others if it weren't for the contributions of generations of low-proffle arts patrons. These days, much of that patronage comes from outside Florence and even outside Italy; walk through the Uffizi and you'll see restorations paid for by groups of art lovers in locations from Kyoto to Cleveland. And so when Countess Simonetta Brandolini d'Adda, an American who has lived in Florence with her Italian husband for 30 years, saw the need to help protect and preserve the city's staggering cultural legacy, she thought of her own countrymen.

MAKEOVER: David should be spiffed up for his 500th birthday in 2004.

"So many Americans have a special rapport with Florence; says Brandolini, who sells and rents out luxury Italian properties through her real-estate agency, The Best in Italy. "They come back to Florence all the times" Thus in 1998 was born Friends of Florence, fashioned after the non-profit art and architecture preservation foundation, Save Venice. Although based in Washington, D.C., for tax purposes, the group of 140 people raises and spends money to preserve Florence's artistic legacy.
It helps that Brandolini can tap some of her real-estate clients, such as Bette Midler and Mel Gibson. Sting, Franco Zeffirelli and Zubin Mehta all sit on the Advisory Committee. "They are Florence's best friends;' ~ says Antonio Paolucci, a former Italian Culture Minister who is now Florence's superintendent of fine arts. "They have already spent more than $3 million helping us conserve the city's works of art."
The Friends' first big project: the restoration in 2002 of all 10 pieces of marble statuary in the Loggia of Piazza della Signoria-an outdoor room ofthe Uffizi.
This year, patrons were allowed to choose their favorite among 22 16th century paintings in the Accademia's Tribune (home of Michelangelo's David), and have their names appear on a plaque below the painting as the major donor for its restoration. Mel Gibson and his wife chose Alessandro Allori's Madonna Enthroned.
Says Brandolini: "There was an explosion of color because these are all Mannerist paintings. It was the first time that people walkedin there, and they weren't looking at the David."The price is steep.
Founding patrons, who make a onetime gift of $30,000 or more, and patrons, who donate $5,000 annually (all tax deductible), are invited to the yearly unveiings of projects that include insider visits to collections never open to the public, and fetes at the palatial homes of Florentine aristocrats like the marquises Frescobaldi and Antinori.
The latest project is to help clean David himself, in time for his 500th birthday in 2004. The distilled-water cleaning, during which David will remain visible to the public, is being financed by a Dutch nonprofit foundation.
The Friends sponsored the diagnostic testing that will determine how the restoration proceeds, and they're funding a DVD and website containing all the latest research on the statue.
Was it hard to get the money? "The €200,000 for David were gathered literally in 24 hours;' says Brandolini.

from: "TIME Magazine" October 2003

The Trouble with 'David'

Controversy surrounds Michelangelo's famous statue in the run-up to its 500th birthday.

BY ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

A new restorer has been named to lead the controversial cleaning of Michelangelo's David. But the international debate continues over whether the project should take place at all and, if so, what method should be used. As that discussion simmers, a new issue is being raised about David: who really owns the 500-year-old statue? In the latest round of the cleaning squabble, restorer Cinzia Parnigoni was chosen to work on David, replacing Agnese Parronchi, who resigned in March because she disagreed with the prescribed cleaning method. Parronchi had favored a gentle dry cleaning with soft brushes and cotton swabs; her successor will use a 'wet~~ technique, which consists of applying compresses with distilled water for up to 20 minutes at a time. Antonio Paolucci, who oversees Florence's state museums and restorations, told ARTnews that this method is "the least risky and gives the best results." However, 50 art experts have entered the fray with a petition calling for the cleaning project to be suspended until it can be determined which method should be used. The appeal, which calls for an independent commission to evaluate the situation, was started by James Beck, a professor of Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture at Columbia University and founder of Artwatch International, a nonprofit organization that aims to protect works of art and monuments from damaging restoration treatments. " Considering its place in history and as an icon of the Renaissance, of Florence, of Italy, of the power of the human figure, and of the genius of Michelangelo, the David merits such high-level consideration," Beck wrote in the appeal.The attempt at intervention from outside Italian art circles has touched a nerve. "It's his business to be polemical," Franca Falletti, director of the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the statue is housed, says of Beck, who has criticized other restorations in Italy. "We're doing our job," Falletti adds. "Restoration isn't Beck's job or that of journalists, for that matter."Foreign companies and foundations are already involved with the cleaning project, as is common in Italy. The Dutch foundation Ars Longa Stichting has contributed €165,000 ($179,000); another organization, the Friends of Florence Foundation, spent €200,000 ($217,000) to cover preliminary testing before the cleaning began. It also runs a Web site tracking David's restoration (www.restaurodeldavid.it).

Michelangelo's David attracts crowds at the Galleria deIl'Accademia in Florence, but behind the scenes there is a debate over the best way to clean the statue and who owns it.

Meanwhile, a legal baffle is brewing between the city of Florence and the Italian government over the ownership of the statue.Following a volley of accusations from state art administrators that the municipality is unable to look after its artistic heritage-because the city's churches and public spaces are suffering from neglect-Florence mayor Leonardo Domenici threatened to take possession of David. He claims that the statue belongs to the city.
A lawyer has been named by city hall to investigate who is the rightful owner. Should it be determined that David belongs to Florence, the city wants to participate in the "management of the statue," Simone Siliani, Florence's commissioner for culture, told ARTnews.
Domenici is not the first mayor to lay claim to the city's most famous statue. Several years ago, the Accademia Museum was forced to compile a report proving that the state is the legitimate owner, after the issue was raised by a previous city administration.

The ownership question coincides with proposed legislation by the province of Tuscany that would allow it to play a larger role in the management of its cultural heritage. If approved, Tuscany could be granted the right to manage all its art museums and monuments.
Local representatives of the state culture ministry fiercely contest the proposed change. They say that such devolution would open the door to the influence of local interests and pressure groups. Editorials in major newspapers also cautioned against dismantling the established national arts-administration system.
Beck has suggested that the struggle over David's ownership is really about lucrative marketing and reproduction rights. But Falletti told ARTnews that such artworks "are not money makers" and that ticket sales and reproduction rights don't cover the cost of running the museum. "The museum would need its own legal office to hunt down cases where those rights had been breached," Falletti adds.
.

from: "ARTnews" October 2003

FLORENCE'S FRIENDS IN DEED

AN EXTRAORDINARY TRIP SPOTLIGHTS ONE GROUP'S EFFORTS TO CONSERVE THIS GLORIOUS CITY'S ARTISTIC TREASURES.

BY ANTHONY BARZILAY FREUND

Wasn't it romantic? There I was in Florence with my wife, Joan, on our first long weekend away from the kids since who remembers when. It was a warm June night. Joan was in a diaphanous black dress, I was in my best suit, and we were at the most incredible cocktail party imaginable. About twenty-five of us, wineglasses in hand, were wandering the empty, echoing galleries of Florence's Accademia, home to Michelangelo's David. Where thousands had thronged just hours before, Joan and I were virtually alone with what is arguably the world's most famous statue. Cut from a single thirteen-and-a-half-foot-high chunk of Carrara marble, the graceful, tautly muscled young man who would slay Goliath with a mere slingshot has represented many things over the five centuries since his completion: the ideals of Renaissance humanism, which extolled the virtues of the individual man; the strength of the Florentine Republic; the power of the Medici, the superrich clan that ran Florence from the 15th through the 18th century; and, especially in these recent abs-obsessed years, the epitome of pinup-worthy hunkdom.
We stared in silent wonder. I took Joan's hand; she gave a gentle squeeze back. I turned to look into her eyes. She kept staring up at David. I tugged her hand. She kept staring up at David.

One's profound sense of personal inadequacies notwithstanding, a private audience with Michelangelo's masterpiece is the most remarkable of privileges. How did we come to have such exclusive entrée? We were fortunate to participate in the first trip sponsored by Friends of Florence, a five-year-old, Washington, D.C.-based international foundation that has made conserving the Tuscan capital's artistic heritage its primary mission. Over the course of four days, our traveling group was treated to an extraordinary insider's view of Florence, a.k.a. Firenze, a rare example of a 14th- through 16th-century city that has remained almost entirely intact. The trip included historian-guided tours of the city's great public collections (when they were closed to other visitors), as well as invitations to some of its most beautiful art-filled private residences. After such amazing VIP treatment, Joan and I couldn't imagine why anyone wouldn't feel amicable toward the city.Though relatively small and new to the scene, Friends of Florence hopes to do for the city what other American organizations such as Save Venice Inc. and Venetian Heritage have done for that slowly sinking sensation to the north.

To date, the group's most visible project has been the current restoration of David in preparation for his upcoming five hundredth birthday. This summer, when the scaffolding that has partially obscured the statue for the past eight months comes down and conservators pack up the last of their high-tech tools, a huge unveiling ceremony and celebration (the focal point of Friends of Florence's next trip, "On the Michelangelo Trail," slated for July 11 through 14) will surely garner international attention. The kid may be half a millennium old, but he's never looked better-and Friends of Florence is poised to tell the world about its contributions to David's current comely state. The foundation's gift of more than $200,000 has been used to study the sculpture's internal strength, to publish an in-depth report on the findings and to create a DVD and a Web site about the restoration. What's more, it has spent $500,000 on the cleaning and restoration of fifteen paintings (by Pontormo and Bronzino, among others) that line the gallery walls surrounding the David.
" Some people like to say that the preponderance of the world's greatest art is in Italy and that the best of those art-works are in Florence," states Contessa Simonetta Brandolini d'Adda, the driving force behind Friends of Florence and our inestimable host. An attractive blonde with a sweet face, boundless energy and a quiet air of competence, Brandolini explains that the Italian government has so much to look after- literally thousands of years' worth of art and architecture-that it just can't take care of everything. Furthermore, since Italy offers minimal tax deductions for charitable contributions, there's little incentive for even wealthy Italians to be philanthropic. But as an American who has called Florence home for the last thirty years, Brandolini understands that the city and its monuments are as beloved in the United States as they are by the Florentines themselves.
The Friends of Florence board already reflects this fact. Brandolini, who heads up the Best in Italy, a luxury villa rental and sales agency, has managed to sign on some of her American friends and clients, including Ellie Cullman, a noted interior designer; winery owner Kathe Dyson; Ann O'Brien, a managing director at Banc of America Equity Partners, in Chicago; and Bette Midler, to join forces with the likes of Piero Antinori, Bona Frescobaldi and Simone Rucellai, ranking members of the city's most prominent families.
" I remember in 1996 when Simonetta first came to me and told me about the idea for the foundation," says New Yorker Kathe Dyson, who with her husband, John, divides her time among their wineries in New York State (Mill-brook Vineyard), northern California (Williams & Selyem) and Chianti (Villa Pillo). "Until then I thought I'd just somehow escaped being approached by the local philanthropies. It's inconceivable to me that nothing existed before Friends of Florence, especially since everyone knows that the Medici died out centuries ago."

The Medici, of course, were the all-powerful bankers to the Vatican and enlightened patrons of the arts who commissioned monumental building projects and supported the careers of such artists as Donatello, Botticelli and Michelangelo (who moved into the Medici's massive palazzo on the Via Cavour to apprentice as a painter when he was just a boy). Friends of Florence's impact may not yet be of the magnitude of the Medici's, but the group is off to a good start. The ostensible centerpiece of our trip was the official unveiling of the Loggia della Signoria restoration, complete with ribbon cutting, pantalooned trumpeters and words of gratitude from the city's mayor. The loggia, a covered, open-air terrace across from the Palazzo Vecchio, is home to some of the city's most remarkable public sculptures, largely from the 16th century-Cellini's noble bronze Perseus and Giambologna's spiraling, agitated Rape of the Sabines are two standouts. Centuries of exposure to the elements had taken a toll on the artworks. Following a $280,000 restoration, however, this important sculptural ensemble sparkles once again.
Our own ensemble of fellow travelers (composed primarily of board members and their friends, including public relations consultant Pilar Crespi Robert and her husband, financier Stephen Robert; technology trailblazer Don Valentine and his wife, Rachel; and Alain Mertens, an architect whose clients include Sting and Trudie Styler, members of Friends of Florence's advisory board) came from all corners of America and beyond; the organization's broad-based support must be yet another reflection of Florence's far-flung appeal. As lively and convivial as Joan and I found our companions to be, the main attraction for everyone was Florence- its history and, of course, its art. "There's nothing more boring in the world than going to just another party," declares El-lie Cullman, echoing the prevailing sentiment of the group. "But what I am interested in at this point is life-enriching experiences that have educational components."
The trip's organizers delivered this in spades. On our first evening, we convened in a room off the lobby of the Grand Hotel, where most of the members of our party were staying. There, despite a serious case of jet lag, Joan and I were riveted by art historian Elaine Ruffolo's lecture on the city's past. (Ruffolo and her Syracuse University colleagues Rocky Ruggiero and Kirk Duclaux would be our constant guides, as edifying as they were entertaining.) A quiet medieval town, Florence grew rich in the 12th century, thanks to a brisk wool trade. This prosperity, coupled with a forward-thinking government, set the scene for the tremendous creative and intellectual accomplishments of the subsequent centuries. Still, no historian will ever be able to fully explain the miracle of Renaissance Florence. "It's the birthplace of Western civilization as we know it," comments Michael Collins, the chair of the group's executive committee and a hedge-fund manager based in Coral Gables, Florida. "But how did this small village on the Arno come to produce Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Brunelleschi?"

The golden age of Florence also produced the winemaking Antinoris. In fact, the pristinely maintained palazzo in which Marchese and Marchesa Piero and Francesca Antinori hosted our first night's dinner has been in the family since 1504. With their welcoming remarks and their warm embrace of our group, the Antinoris set the tone for our reception throughout our stay.
The next morning we all headed by foot (a large part of central Florence is closed to vehicular traffic) to the Duomo, Florence's great domed cathedral, for a very special tour led by one of Italy's foremost art historians, Dottore Piero Morselli. While tourists queued up outside awaiting the official opening time, our group was whisked inside the soaring sacred space.
Florence is full of hidden treasures, but the Duomo certainly isn't one of them. It's the in-your-face life force of the city. With its vibrant white-and-green façade and red heavens-reaching dome (Brunelleschi's pre-computerera engineering marvel), perfectly proportioned campanile (by Giotto) and octagonal baptistry (whose famous bronze doors are covered with Ghiberti's detailed depictions of scenes from the Old Testament), the complex is a razzle-dazzler visible from virtually every street corner in Florence. But the personality of the cathedral's cool, stone-walled interior, devoid of the usual tour groups and worshipers, is exactly the opposite. In fact, an awe-inspired calm washed over me in a way that I've never known in all my dutiful travels through the churches of Europe.
Inside the baptistry, the guards allowed us to climb to an ordinarily off-limits mezzanine level for a closer look at the building's marvelous ceiling mosaics. As we began our ascent, Morselli pointed out a high-water mark on the walls, a remnant of the devastating floods of 1966. Of the many amazing stories from that time, Morselli told us one that was particularly poignant:
Donatello's highly emotive sculpture of Mary Magdalene, carved from a humble piece of wood, was uprooted from its spot in the baptistry and tossed into the muddy floodwaters. Miraculously it was saved and none the worse for wear; visitors can see it today, as we did, in the Museum of the Duomo, which also houses a Michelangelo Pietá (his other two are in Rome and Milan). The Florentine Pietá was our last stop on the Morselli tour before we headed off to lunch at the home of Marchese and Marchesa Ferdinando and Rosaria Frescobaldi, members of another great Tuscan winemaking family. Their palazzo includes an expansive garden as well as a private chapel with a view into the main sanctuary of the neighboring Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi's church that had been commissioned by a Frescobaldi ancestor and was begun in 1436.

Another Florentine who opened her doors to us was the Frescobaldis' dynamic sister-in-law, Marchesa Bona Frescobaldi, who hosted the following day's dinner in her family's Villa di Collazzi. Set high in the hills above town, the formidable villa, thought to have been designed by Michelangelo, is filled with museum-quality, centuries spanning furniture and antiques, an up-close tour of which would have been the highlight of any other vacation.
But not of this one, not when Brandolini had arranged for us to visit the Uffizi the next morning, the last stop for our group. It was Monday, and the museum was otherwise closed, so at our own leisurely paces we took in the famed Botticellis and Leonardos, the Madonnas and baby Jesuses, the Renaissance gentlemen and fine ladies, before stopping in the octagonal Tribune Room. It's one of the museum's star attractions, but it has seen better days: the weathervane at its top no longer operates; the mother-of-pearl-adorned cupola has lost some of its luster; the intricate marble-mosaic floor needs restoration; and the sculptures from antiquity (favorite pieces from the Medici's own collection) cry out for a cleaning. Not surprisingly, the Tribune Room, Brandolini informed us, may be a future Friends of Florence funding project.

We left the Uffizi via the open-by-appointment-only Vasari Corridor. Now lined with portraits by Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens, Bernini and Canova, among others, the corridor was once used by the Medici to shuttle safely back and
forth between their seat of government, then in the Uffizi, and their residence, the Pitti Palace, across the Arno. Walking in the footsteps of the great Medici, we finally came out into the sunlight in the Boboli Gardens, the steeply sloping late-16th-century park behind the Pitti.
As the doors of the Vasari Corridor closed behind us, the trip was essentially over. Soon the group would say its goodbyes and begin to scatter, and Joan and I would once again be mere tourists walking among other tourists in the bright Tuscan sun.
But is any visitor to Florence a mere tourist? Most, like those with whom we'd spent the past four days, are besotted lovers of the city. And if you're a fan of Florence, then you should consider becoming a Friend as well.

from: "TOWN & COUNTRY" April 2003

Florentines must have noticed the big wooden boxes that for the past couple of months are in the Orcagna Loggia. They are the worksite constructions for the restoration treatments that are being undertaken on a few of the city's most famous sculptures: the "Rape of Polissena" by Pio Fedi, and the "Rape of the Sabines" by Gianbologna (in the photo), as well as two of the Roman statues that are against the back wall. All this thanks to the half billion Lire given by an American cultural association. Its name is "Friends of Florence" and never has a name been so appropriate. At the end of June the cleaned and consolidated statues will be returned for the public to enjoy. The restoration interventions will continue - again with financing from the Friends of Florence - on the remaining statues in the Loggia. By the summer of 2002 the entire sculptural patrimony will be finished, and the Uffizi's outside patio will again be at the disposition of the Florentines and tourists alike. The quality of the wooden barriers at the worksite - sober and elegant - almost like the sculptures of contemporary artist Ceroli, and so different from the horrible scaffolding that one sees almost everywhere, testifies to the "style"

	Superintendent Antonio Paolucci

of this sponsorization: uncommon as well as admirable.Up to this point, everything ok, except that the restoration interventions on the “Rape of he Sabines” have permitted us to put our hands on the amount of degradation of the work - and it is more than worrisome. The wear on the famous marble piece is at such a state that there is no longer any alternative but to bring it inside. Along with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence and the Istituto Centrale in Rome, I fought so that the “Perseus” by Benvenuto Cellini could remain in its place. This was possible because in this case the periodic checks and maintenance can guaranty its good health. But in the case of the “Rape of the Sabines”, I don’t feel that we can risk it. The “Rape of the Sabines” is not your run of the mill sculpture. It is one of the most famous and celebrated statues in the world. This, because it is “the first group with more than a single figure in European sculpture that was conceived without a dominant viewpoint” (John Pope-Hennessy). The work can be admired from every vantage point - one is immediately taken in by its rotating movement. In art history, this work is an exemplary prototype; it is at the top of a stylistic cycle as are the “St. George” by Donatello, the “David” by Michelangelo, the “Apollo and Daphne” by Bernini.
In fact when it was placed in the Orcagna Loggia on 14 January 1583, as a pendant to the “Perseus” by Cellini, Florence was at the vertex of European art. It is obvious that a masterpiece of this importance deserves to be conserved at whatever the cost. The cost - as painful and inevitable as it is - is its substitution by a copy. The copy will be in Carrara marble - the same quality and with a patina - in order not to be out of place with the rest of the works in the Loggia.As soon as the consolidation and cleaning are finished, a specialized artist from Pietrasanta (Lucca) will begin work on the copy. Then the “Rape of the Sabines” will be transferred in the museum. But which museum? The “Accademia”, the “home of the David” - there could be no doubt about this. There are two reasons why the Accademia has been chosen. First, the plaster model will go there, but also because the Accademia was born out of the didactic example of the “Rape of the Sabines” for artists and scholars throughout the world. It is the supreme model of Mannerist and Baroque sculpture..
Antonio Paolucci - Superintendent of Cultural Heritage for Tuscany