Italian unions have lambasted the new museum head of the Royal Palace of Caserta for working too hard, prompting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to ride to his defense.
Renzi’s government appointed Mauro Felicori five months ago to revive the fortunes of the spectacular, 1,200-room Baroque palace of the Bourbon kings, which like many of the nation’s artistic and cultural treasures was suffering from decades of neglect and mismanagement.
However, local unions sent a letter to the Italian minister of culture, Felicori’s boss, complaining that he works late into the evening without the rest of the museum’s personnel being informed.
“Such behavior puts the whole structure at risk,” said the letter, published in the Corriere della Sera daily on Saturday.
In a post on Facebook, Renzi said the accusation leveled at Felicori, a 63-year-old expert in the management of cultural sites, was ridiculous.
“The unions complaining about Felicori, who was chosen by the government after an international selection process, should realize that the tide has turned. The fun’s over,” Renzi said.
Visitors to the Caserta palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site often referred to as “Italy’s Versailles,” increased 70 percent last month from a year earlier, with revenue up 105 percent, Renzi said.
“The director is simply doing his job and we all stand by him, without fear,” he said.
The national leader of Italy’s biggest labor group, CGIL, Susanna Camusso, distanced herself from the complaints against Felicori.
“Mistakes must be acknowledged and those unions are wrong,” Camusso tweeted.
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