FRANCESCO BERGAMO ROSSI
During the recent opening of the Venice Biennale, Dior joined forces with the Venetian Heritage Foundation to support the city’s cultural legacy with a fundraising gala ball. TANK spoke with the foundation’s managing director, Francesco (Toto) Bergamo Rossi, about its ongoing work restoring the architectural treasures of the city, balancing tourism with preservation, how Dior and Italy are forever intertwined, and getting a new generation interested in hard work.
Interview by Caroline Issa
Caroline Issa What is the Venetian Heritage Foundation’s remit?
Toto Bergamo Rossi We have offices in New York and Venice, and our aim is to raise funds and interest in Venice in different ways, even politically, like when we fought against the cruise ships last year.
CI What did that result in?
TBR We won, and the ships don’t cross through the historical centre anymore.
CI How does your role in terms of conservation contrast or coincide with your brief as a curator? How do you balance the two?
TBR I have to have a lot of energy. I’m very tired because I just put together an exhibition, From Donatello to Alessandro Vittoria 1450–1600, at the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro, a building the Venetian Heritage Foundation had a major hand in restoring. I also wrote the catalogue for the exhibition, and also recently organised a gala fundraising weekend with 300 to 400 guests, for three days.
CI Has that all come after two years of quiet building and restoration work?
TBR Not really, because we opened the Palazzo Grimani last year after the second half of the restoration work was completed, so we were constantly busy. This exhibition was complicated because some of the sculptures are part of the permanent collection, but many others are from different museums and private collections. Putting that part together was a nightmare!
CI Why do you think that this exhibition at the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro is the first to bring so many Renaissance sculptures together?
TBR In general, people don’t care about sculptures. They’re of minor interest; if you talk about the arts, people think about paintings.
CI I would imagine that for you, as an expert stone restorer, sculpture is the thing that draws you to the art world. Was it a challenge to get together this mix of private collection loans and publicly owned pieces?
TBR Yes! The biggest was that on the day of the opening, the head of the Ministry of Culture for Venice cancelled the promised loan of one of the pieces… for a show in a state museum! It’s those little things. Sometimes you have to go to Rome, to the big boss, to punish the little one down here. It’s an ego problem. They don’t think that other people do it only for others, as I try to do. What we are doing with Venetian heritage is sharing things of amazing quality that not a lot of people know about, to give them access. Because producing books with thousands of pages and footnotes and academic essays won’t bring new people in. You have to open these doors, not keep them closed.
CI Globally, many private institutions are having to do the job of the cultural state, doing what the Ministry of Culture should be doing. The same thing is happening in the United Kingdom, but it’s interesting to hear your perspective: private individuals and private foundations are the ones who have to conserve and treasure what’s in Venice.
TBR Like this museum – it was restored, as you can see, in the 1970s. Some of the elements are quite good, mimicking [Italian architect] Carlo Scarpa’s style, but then it was completely neglected. Venetian Heritage came in and with just a new colour on the wall and new lights, it has changed everything.
CI There’s been a lot of talk about the pressures on Venice, from people to climate change.
TBR And massive tourism. Our politicians don’t care about it or don’t want to make people unhappy. It’s much easier to stay silent and not take a position, so everything stays the same.
CI Is there a solution? I know that you talk about a tax on tourists.
TBR I think the future of Venice, I’m sorry to say, is as an open-air museum with us inside. Museums are good; they are organised. People don’t pee in front of the art; they have bathrooms in the museums. So the city should be run like a gigantic museum, and it should have the respect that one small museum commands in the entire city. Last weekend, the locals weren’t able to walk anywhere. We were stuck in the little streets going back to our own houses. I wanted to kill all the tourists, but it’s not their fault – it’s our fault. I was born here in 1967 and nothing has changed, and the city is still run as it was when I was a little boy. We’ve had all these new facilities: super airport, train, new highways, the internet, and we still move around the city as we did in the 1960s, when they had a maximum of 8 million visitors a year. Pre-Covid-19, we had 25 million a year. Sono pazzi!
CI It’s an interesting contradiction because your ambition is to bring these incredible treasures and heritage to the world, and yet in real life, you need to limit those who can come.
TBR For me, it’s not about limiting. Everybody should have the chance to come to Venice, share the beauty and learn something. The only thing that I ask for is controls on that flow. If you tell people who arrive at the car terminal or the train terminal that they will have to pay something to go inside the city, of course they will pay. They won’t turn around and go back, so money isn’t the right way to limit access. You have to have the courage to say, at any given point in the year: sorry, we cannot take you into Venice. You can come in October or you can come in the beginning of May, but not that date in July, because we cannot walk around anymore. It’s made even worse, with the awful phenomenon of Airbnb, bed-and-breakfasts with no rules that have never been cracked down on. In Paris, yes; in Barcelona, in Berlin, in Manhattan about ten years ago. Here, nothing. I have to say, Venetian as I am, many Venetians complain about all these things, but they are the reason.
CI Because they didn’t do anything?
TBR No. And also, who ran to the tourists? Foreigners?
CI Giving access to beauty and art is where Dior comes into play, I would imagine? In 2019, Dior sponsored its first gala with you. How did the company get involved in this project?
TBR Well, I just proposed it to them, and I used my charm.
CI There’s a lot of charm to be used in this matter…
TBR I feel they know us well. My chairman from the American side of the foundation is the architect Peter Marino, who always works with the LVMH group. We also worked with Pietro Beccari, CEO of Christian Dior, when he was CEO at Fendi. I think a big part of it is: how can you say no to Venice?
CI I love the idea of Ca’ d’Oro, which translates into gold house – how very Dior.
TBR Well, Monsieur Christian Dior himself spent many long weekends in Venice in the 1950s and 1960s.
CI Dior put a lot of storytelling into its craftspeople, producing a behind-the-scenes film about a Resort show in Puglia that turned the spotlight on the incredible crafts-people weaving the textiles and making the pottery. Craft is at the heart of Venetian Heritage, too. How do you find your master craftspeople? Is there a new generation that is curious and wanting to learn? You’ve started a school in Croatia for restoration. Is there the same here in Venice?
TBR We have artisans in Venice who have knowledge passed down for many centuries. Thank God they are able to transmit what they know. It’s fascinating to work with them. I’m a part of that small network, so they have been accessible to me.
CI Do you find that there’s renewed interest from a younger generation for learning the craft of restoration?
TBR Yes, particularly in the last few years, maybe because of the crisis. People are starting to understand that it’s not humiliating to be on your knees making new floors. You often have one person in a workforce from Venice, and all the others are from Albania, yet it’s one of the most beautiful careers you can have and you can make a lot of money. My question to young Venetians is, “What’s so wrong with the profession of restorer? Don’t rent your apartment to become a bed and breakfast, redo the terrazzo!”
CI I feel like that’s a global movement with craft.
TBR I hope so. In France, for example, they have métiers d’art, and they really care about their learned knowledge. Here we have much more, because it’s our Roman heritage: the materials that we have now, the plaster in the stucco, it all came from Rome and is still around after centuries. But it’s not something that our government is able to think about: we have to be proud of Italian know-how. We know that Louis Vuitton and Dior make their luxury bags 20 kilometres from Venice because Italian artisans are the best.
CI Venice is the heart of so much of that craft history.
TBR Venice is all made by the human hand. Completely manmade, even the canals.
CI How can the world of art and fashion help save Venetian heritage?
TBR Luxury is an amazing industry. Luxury and beauty are related to that kind of old beauty; they work together. People are still inspired by this city for new creations and fashion is one of the industries in which you can create most. Venice is the most open, imaginary, fascinating place. I think that, in the end, it is still an amazing source of inspiration for all of us. ◉