“Klimt”-Sale for a stadium? Vortex in Venice

The proceeds will go towards building a stadium. Only later did it emerge that this was not a plan by the city administration, but a provocation by Borasos. And finally a bad April Fool’s joke.

Boraso had claimed that the municipality wanted the one kept in the Municipal Museum of Ca’ Pesaro “Klimt” to finance the construction of a stadium in mainland Venice – after the EU suspended payment of a third tranche of money from the EU recovery fund. “If no solution is found, there is an extreme way to get the funds for the stadium: we can sell Klimt’s ‘Judith'”Boraso had explained.

93 million euros from EU funds

The football arena project is opposed by environmentalists and the left-wing opposition in the city council. 93 million euros of the total cost of 303 million euros to build the stadium is said to come from the European recovery fund decided by the EU during the pandemic and of which Italy is the largest recipient. Two weeks ago, the EU Commission announced that it wanted to delay the payment of the next tranche of 19 billion euros to Italy by four weeks and expressed concerns about plans to build the football arena in Venice.

Boraso’s proposal triggered a heated reaction from the opposition. Only after vehement protests did he declare that his proposal was a “belated April Fool’s joke”and assured: “The Klimt painting remains in Venice.”