Safeguarding Italy’s Cultural Heritage

Notwithstanding an ancient and well-established tradition in the preservation of cultural heritage, Italy now finds itself in trouble on several fronts. On the one hand, the policies of decentralization and privatization, adopted since the early nineteen-nineties, are leading the former system of protection and enhancement of cultural properties and landscape into difficulty, without replacing it with a new, equally consistent and effective alternative. On the other hand, the slowness of the State in implementing the UNESCO Conventions of 2003 and 2005 is causing a serious delay in the adoption of a general policy for the safeguard of intangible cultural heritage and for the protection and promotion of cultural diversity. This delay has in part been off-set by the growing activism of the regions, who have proved themselves to be a very vital and productive melting pot of ideas and solutions on the matter. However, in the absence of founding State legislation, their action still lacks the necessary organic framework.