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A Juxtaposition That Doesn't Quite Work

Normally, Antonio Canova’s sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte as Venus is flanked by some diminutive Roman sculptures behind her. Not now. For some inexplicable reason- or the latest misbegotten attempt to bring in a wider population—the Galleria Borghese in Rome has invited Damien Hirst to put his work throughout the galleries in a counterpoint. Who ever thought that the ever and already fabulous Galleria Borghese needed updating? Hirst is the Emperor’s Old Clothes, and here instead we have some real Emperors of art and history. What?!!! There is already hardly a ticket booking to be had at the Galleria and Covid isn’t even over. Sometimes the interspersion of modern arts into antiquity can work ( the nearby Galleria Nazionale d’arte Moderna does a splendid job of a likeminded juxtaposition). Save us from this plague of impoverished confidence in your collections museum curators and directors.