It seems that Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took a page out of John Ashcroft’s book, as it were, and covered up a female body part in a work of art, in full public view of course (here)…ROME: The government cover-up making headlines in Italy this August has been over its clumsy attempts to hide the truth.I have to hand it, as they say, to Berlusoni; he always finds a way to keep things interesting (more evidence here and here).
The truth, in this case, refers to an 18th-century allegorical figure in a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo that serves as a backdrop for government news conferences in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's official residence.
It was retouched in recent weeks to cover an exposed breast, which "might have upset the sensitivity of some viewers," Paolo Bonaiuti, the prime minister's spokesman, told the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera over the weekend.
"That breast, that little nipple, ends up right in the shots that TVs make during press conferences," Bonaiuti said.
...
And then there is tradition. From an iconographic point of view, "the truth is usually depicted nude," Bertuzzo-Lomazzi said.
"It's kind of pointless to have wanted this allegory and then to cover it up. They could have chosen another subject."
And in other news concerning the female anatomy, Helen Rumbelow of the (UK) Times Online tells us here about the “Lycra Revolution” that includes a headline with as bad of a pun as anything I could ever conceive, though she makes a good point about women from Arabic countries being allowed to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Update 6/3/09: If only Silvio had "kept his mitts off the kinder" here...I guess, even with all the slack he was cut in Italy, somebody had to draw the line somewhere.
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