Scaffolding around an architectural masterpiece is one thing, but what about a giant ad for the Quantum of Solace? For the first time in history, the Grand Canal and St Mark’s Square are displaying huge advertisements. (via.) “The law allows the scaffolding on public buildings under restoration to carry advertising so long as the superintendent considers that it does not “detract from the appearance, decorum or public enjoyment of the building”. While the existing ads in Venice have aroused local and international protest, Venice superintendent Renata Codello insists that she has been very discriminating: ‘I have turned down masses of proposals, including one with the entire Italian football team dressed only in their shorts,’ she told the Association of Private Committees for Venice last month.”
“I’m in Venice now, which used to be a financial center and is now a tourist center. And the nightmare is that a crisis of this magnitude will turn New York from a financial center into a tourist center. The good news is that London seems to be handling this crisis slightly worse than New York. My sense is that the great financial crisis we’re living through will fundamentally tilt the balance of the world from West to East. Sovereign-wealth funds will matter much, much more because they’ve got the money and we haven’t. New York isn’t quite Venice yet, but I certainly am quite relieved that I don’t own a large block of real estate in Manhattan right now.” – Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money (via.)
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