An Italian politician is pushing for the director of a prestigious museum to be “kicked out”, arguing that he has been “racist towards Italians” in a move that has raised the debate over apparent attempts by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to wield a tighter grip over culture.
Andrea Crippa, deputy leader of the League, a member of Meloni’s ruling coalition, said Christian Greco, who has managed the Egyptian Museum in the northern city of Turin since 2014, was a “leftwing director” who was running the museum in an “ideological and racist manner against Italians and Christians”.
Crippa’s gripe dates back to February 2018, when Greco offered discounted tickets to Arabic speakers in recognition of the museum’s relics coming from Egypt and as a way to promote dialogue between the two cultures.
But the initiative sparked protests outside the museum – one of the most successful in Europe – from the far-right, including Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party polled less than 4% at the time. Meloni described the idea as “idiotic” and “discriminatory towards Italians”. Before coming to power last October, she had long railed against “Islamisation”.
The issue reemerged after Maurizio Marrone, Brothers of Italy’s welfare councillor for the Piedmont region, told the Turin edition of Corriere della Sera this week that Greco’s mandate would probably not be renewed because he felt there were “more qualified figures”. Leadership of Piedmont fell into the hands of the rightwing coalition in regional elections last year.
Crippa’s reaction also came after he was cleared in a legal case brought by Greco for allegedly inciting hatred.
He told the Italian press that Greco should “perform an act of dignity and resign”. “We’ll do everything to have him kicked out and we ask culture minister [Gennaro] Sangiuliano to sack him if he doesn’t resign,” he said.
Under Greco’s leadership, ticket sales at the museum have boomed, with more than 900,000 visitors to the site in 2022, up by 6.3% from pre-pandemic levels, and constant queues outside.
In an interview with La Stampa on Thursday, Greco, an Italian who previously worked abroad, defended his track record, saying that “political interference only exists in Italy”.
“In Italy political interference is excessive, it ruins the equilibrium and is a problem that has always existed,” he added. “During my seven years of working abroad, I never saw a politician.”
Sangiuliano, who in the past has hinted that the government would limit the hiring of foreign museum directors, has not responded to the debacle.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a culture ministry undersecretary, said in August that some of the top jobs should be reserved for Italians and that the government had introduced new criteria in the hiring process, for example being more demanding over applicants’ language skills.
Several politicians from opposition parties have defended Greco, including the former culture minister Dario Franceschini.
“Culture is a terrain that should be kept out of political clashes,” he said. “Believing that those who govern should only appoint loyalists is mistaken and risks a boomerang.”
Laura Boldrini, from the centre-left Democratic party, said Crippa’s words were the expression of “authoritarian and proprietary ideas”, describing the approach as “disturbing for the country and for democracy”.
Daniela Ruffino, from the small centrist party Azione, said: “Seeking to use Christian Greco, an Egyptologist of universal fame and esteem, to conduct a religious war against Islam says a lot about how low political combat can go.”
