Economist.com Cities Guide: Milan Briefing - June 2006

News this month

Moratti takes Milan

Letizia Moratti, the education minister in the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, has been elected mayor of Milan. She received around 52% of the vote on May 28th and 29th, compared with 47% for Bruno Ferrante, the centre-left’s candidate and a former prefect of the city. The margin was big enough for Ms Moratti, who is Milan’s first female mayor, to avoid a run-off, but smaller than expected. Milan traditionally has been a stronghold of the centre-right and of Mr Berlusconi, whose businesses are based in the city. Ms Moratti’s predecessor, the centre-right’s Gabriele Albertini, received 57.5% of the vote in 2001 when he was elected for a second term.

Mr Berlusconi, now the opposition leader, had been hoping for a big comeback after his coalition was narrowly defeated in April's national elections by Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition. Yet leftish mayors posted comfortable victories in Rome, Turin and Naples. The centre-right kept the governorship in Sicily, where Salvatore Cuffaro was re-elected. Mr Cuffaro is on trial for alleged complicity with the Mafia, but denies all charges.

Own goals

AC Milan, one of Italy’s most famous football teams, denied any wrongdoing after its name was drawn into a widening football corruption scandal just weeks before the World Cup. According to wiretaps published on May 25th in Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper, the club appears to have sought to influence the choice of referees for its matches during the 2004-2005 season. Milan’s lawyer said that the wiretap had been “poorly interpreted”. At the centre of the scandal is Juventus, Italy's Turin-based team, and its former general manager, Luciano Moggi. Investigations into charges of match-fixing, illegal betting and manipulation of referee assignments have implicated a number of other clubs, including both AC Milan and their cross-town rivals, Inter Milan.

As Italians seek to clean up their national sport, a former Milanese prosecutor, Francesco Saverio Borrelli, has emerged from retirement to oversee the football federation’s investigation. Mr Borrelli led the so-called “Mani Pulite” (“Clean Hands”) anti-corruption probes in the 1990s that rocked Italy's business and political worlds.

Musical chairs

Daniel Barenboim has been named the principal guest conductor at Milan's opera house, the Teatro alla Scala. The Argentine-born 63-year-old will help fill the void left by the tempestuous departure of Riccardo Muti, the long-time musical director. He is not, however, seen as a replacement for Mr Muti, who resigned a year ago after nearly 20 years at La Scala's podium. Stéphane Lissner, La Scala’s superintendent, said that Mr Barenboim would be the musical director “most present” at the theatre for the next five or six years, with neither a formal title nor a working contract.

Mr Barenboim, who is also a world-class pianist, will conduct his first performance—Verdi’s “Requiem”—in November 2007. He will conduct at least two opera productions each season, beginning with Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” in December 2007. Offstage, his work in Milan will involve a music-education project for pre-school children. The deal between Mr Barenboim and La Scala is part of a wider collaboration between the Milan opera house and Berlin’s Staatsoper—where Mr Barenboim retains his role as musical director—which will share some productions.

Model strike

It wasn't exactly the height of militancy, but Milan’s fashion models stopped work for three hours on May 17th, halting photographic shoots and advertising campaigns. The strike, spearheaded by ASSEM, the local association that represents some of the country's most important modelling agencies, was mainly a protest against unfair competition from foreign companies. Local agencies claim that foreign agencies—particularly American ones—open and close local branches in a matter of months and can offer cheaper prices since they avoid paying Italian taxes. Besides tighter regulation for foreign competitors, industry players also want a licensing system that would protect models from people who falsely pose as agents and inveigle women into work as hostesses and prostitutes.

The strike was held outside the modelling industry’s Milan high-season. But should the complaints go unheard, ASSEM has promised to continue its protest when the next fashion shows—for the 2007 spring/summer menswear collections—are held in the city at the end of June.

Bath time

Milan is hardly known as a destination for taking the waters, but that could change with a project to build the city’s first thermal baths. The spa will be near the San Siro horse track, in an area recently declared a national monument. The “Terme di Milano” will be constructed by Consorzio Stabile, a local group that has been awarded a 35-year concession by the city. Giovanna Franco Repellini, the architect who came up with the idea, expects the baths to be completed in about three years. The project includes the restructuring of some once beautiful Art Deco stables, as well as the creation of a garden and some completely new spa structures. Solar panels will heat both the indoor and outdoor pools.

It may not be Baden-Baden, but Milan has mineral waters running beneath its soil that justify the location of the baths. Indeed, some locals still drink sulphur-rich water known for its curative properties from an old fountain in the Parco Sempione.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Max Bill

Until June 25th 2006

Swiss-born Max Bill was a master of various arts, whose skills as painter, sculptor, graphic artist, architect and product designer brought him many international awards in his lifetime. This exhibition of 250 works takes a look at his entire career. The earliest are drawings from the 1920s, when Bill was studying at the Bauhaus, which reveal the influence of Klee and Kandinsky. The most recent are graphic works finished shortly before his death in 1994. Paintings, sculptures, watches, clocks and the famous “Ulmer Hocker” stool—part stool, part table, part shelf—are also here. The exhibit, which comes to Milan after a run at the Kunstmuseum in Stuttgart, is the largest devoted to Bill since 1987.

Palazzo Reale, Piazza Duomo 12. Tel: +39 (0)2 4335 3522. Open: Tues-Sun 9.30am-7.30pm. Tickets: €9.

More from the Milan cultural calendar