Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - May 2005

News this month

Still looking

On May 3rd, Italy's highest criminal court, the Court of Cassation, upheld a lower court's acquittal of three men accused of bombing a bank in Milan's Piazza Fontana in 1969. The attack, which left 17 dead and more than 80 injured, was one of the country's worst incidents of post-war terrorism. It sparked a decade of violence in Italy by fringe groups on the left and right.

The three accused—Carlo Maria Maggi, Delfo Zorzi and Giancarlo Rognoni—had been active in fascist groups in the 1960s, and all got life sentences in 2001, which was then overturned (a decision sustained by this ruling). The bombing, carried out on December 12th 1969, has been shrouded in controversy from the beginning: prosecutors and victims' families have often alleged official involvement and a cover-up. The new ruling required victims' families to help bear court costs, though the Italian government said it would cover them (an offer that was accepted). Aldo Aniasi, Milan's mayor at the time of the bombing, called the ruling “a defeat for the state, an offence to Milan and a double insult to the families”.

Turning it on

Electricité de France (EDF), a state-owned French utility, has announced that it will be teaming up with AEM, a Milan-based company, to take over Edison, Italy's second-largest utility group, which is also based in Milan. The transaction, which analysts expect will be worth as much as €12 billion ($15.4 billion), will probably involve other investors. The deal looks likely to be one of Italy's biggest this year. Gabriele Albertini, Milan's mayor, called it “a great day for Italy, Milan and AEM”.

The city of Milan owns 43.3% of AEM, and EDF has been a shareholder in Edison since 2001. The deal was announced after the Italian government removed a law that had limited EDF's voting rights in Edison at 2%. Had this law remained on the books, EDF would have probably sold its stake in Edison.

Musical chairs

The city's best conductors are saying arrivederci to Milan. A little over a month after Riccardo Muti left La Scala, where he wielded a baton for 19 years, Riccardo Chailly announced he will be leaving Milan's Orchestra Sinfonico di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. From September 1st, he will assume the chief conductorship of Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra, and will become musical director of Leipzig's opera house.

Mr Chailly was expected to remain active in both Milan and Leipzig. Indeed, he said he would have stayed in Italy had the orchestra appointed an artistic director, which he had requested for years. But the orchestra's director-general blamed a lack of funds. Some critics suspected Mr Chailly would replace Mr Muti at La Scala, but the new artistic director there said there are no immediate plans to find a replacement. Mr Chailly will not sever all ties with the Verdi Orchestra: he will remain an honorary conductor, directing two programmes per year.

Art or provocation?

A seemingly innocent sculpture in front of Milan's Triennale, one of the city's top modern-art destinations, has sparked a heated debate. Silla Ferradini's work features a mass of yarn on a fibreglass base, with a single cast-iron wisp twisting up ten metres into the sky. Entitled, “Large woman's curl...I'd eat you up with kisses”, the work is meant to represent an enlarged pubic hair. Tiziana Maiolo, a local politician, thundered, “I reject the vulgarity of those who use the female body to gain publicity.” Other commentators defended the work on freedom of expression grounds. Last year, a similar debate broke out when Maurizio Cattelan installed a sculpture of three boys hanging from a tree in the Piazza XXIV Maggio; a local man was hospitalised after falling from a ladder while trying to remove the figures.

Jackpot!

Ten lucky people became millionaires after one of the lottery tickets they bought together yielded €72m, the biggest payout in Italian history, in a bar on Milan's outskirts. The May 4th jackpot was the first time the correct sequence of numbers had been chosen for the Superenalotto since October. Nicola Zifarelli, the bar-owner's son, chose the winning formula for the buyers, but denied that any member of his family was among the lucky ten. “If that were the case”, he argued persuasively to an Italian news agency, “I certainly wouldn't be here at work this morning!”

Catch if you can

May 2005

World Press Photo Exhibition

Until May 30th 2005

In this annual international contest of press photographers, there is never a shortage of beautiful, poignant, striking images; they accompanied some of the year's most notable news stories. The World Press Photo Foundation's photograph of the year for 2004 is of a woman in India grieving over a loved one who was killed by the South-East Asian tsunami on December 26th. Arko Datta, an Indian photographer with Reuters, captured the heart-rending image. He is just one of 59 photographers from 24 countries honoured here. Over the course of the year, this exhibition will travel the world; it arrives in Milan from New York, and heads for Rome.
Galleria Carla Sozzani, Corso Cono 10. Tel: +39 (0)2 653-531. Open: Mon, 3.30pm-7.30pm; Tues, Fri, Sat-Sun, 10.30am-7.30pm; Weds-Thurs, 10.30am-9pm. Entry: free.

For more information, visit the websites for the exhibition or the gallery.

More from the Milan cultural calendar