Culture Ministry investigates Russian presence at Venice Biennale
Italy’s culture war over the 61st Biennale escalates. A government investigation and ministerial boycott are afoot with EU funding at risk over the Russian pavilion.
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Category: By Region
AI reconstructs final moments of Pompeii victim
For the first time, the Pompeii Archaeological Park has used artificial intelligence (AI) to give a human face to one of history’s most documented catastrophes. It brings a fleeing man’s last hours to life through a collaboration between cutting-edge technology and rigorous archaeological science.
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University of Pisa is recruiting volunteers for a neuroaesthetics study.
The University of Pisa is recruiting volunteers for a neuroaesthetics study exploring how works of art trigger emotional responses. The only qualification you need is curiosity.
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Dell’Utri and ex-wife face trial over €42million in Berlusconi transfers
Silvio Berlusconi’s most loyal political fixer, Marcello Dell’Utri is heading back to court aged 84. He is accused of hiding vast capital flows from the late tycoon that he was legally obliged to disclose.
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La Fenice axes Venezi after nepotism furore
Venice’s storied opera house has terminated all ties with its controversial music director-designate Beatrice Venezi after comments she made to an Argentine newspaper. Venezi’s interview brought months of bitter conflict to an abrupt head and sparked scenes of jubilation inside the theatre itself.
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On this day: birth of inventor Giovanni Caselli
Giovanni Caselli, the Sienese inventor whose pantelegraph transmitted handwritten images along telegraph wires more than a century before the fax machine, was born on 25 April 1815. He died on the same date he was born in 1891.
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Wolf death toll rises to 18 in Abruzzo Park
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of agricultural pesticides in wolf carcasses recovered from one of Italy’s oldest and most celebrated national parks. Conservationists and opposition politicians demand urgent government action and call for a planned parliamentary bill to cull wolves to be shelved.
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Chiara Petrolini gets 24 years for murdering two newborns
A court in Parma has convicted Chiara Petrolini of the premeditated murder of two babies she secretly delivered and buried on the family property.
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On This Day: death of poet Gaspara Stampa
On 23 April 1554, Venice lost one of the most remarkable literary voices the Italian Renaissance had produced. Gaspara Stampa, considered the greatest woman poet of the Italian Renaissance, died at just 31 years old. She left behind a body of work that would take centuries to receive the recognition it deserved.
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Tourist charged after climbing Florence’s Neptune fountain
A tourist has been charged with defacing a historic monument after allegedly climbing the iconic Neptune Fountain in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria to touch the statue’s genitals. It was, she said, a pre-wedding prank dared by friends.
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