Italy' PM Berlusconi Orders EUR 70,000 Penis for Statue

The restored marble statue of Venus and Mars was unveiled in Rome, Italy, 18 November 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi is attacked for ordering the EUR 70,000 "plastic surgery" of the statues of naked gods Venus and Mars, the BBC has reported.

Berlusconi has ordered a replacement for the missing penis on the statue of the ancient god of war, Mars, and the missing hand for Venus.

Italian art experts have condemned the replacement as tasteless and aesthetically wrong. They have also criticized their prime minister for ordering the restoration, which costs EUR 70,000, at a time when the Italian government has cut more than 40% of the fine arts budget for next year as part of the austerity measures.

However, the Guardian reported that it was the prime minister's architect, Mario Catalano, who decided on the statues' restoration.

"I took the decision. There are two philosophies of restoration. One is just to clean the work and leave it as it is. The other involves making the work whole again, without damaging it, to provide an image of the work as it was originally conceived," Catalano said.

He has also added that the replacement had "not cost a lira" because it was carried out by experts, employed by the government.

"This is aesthetic surgery carried out on the personal whim of the prime minister," said Manuela Ghizzoni of the opposition Democratic Party, as cited by UK's The Daily Telegraph.

Italy's "La Repubblica" has reported that experts studied statues of male nudes from the same period in order to determine the right dimensions of the penis.

The newspaper also states that the replacements were "removable." They were carried out in a haste, without conforming to strict restoration rules and would probably have to be undone when the statues return to the Baths of Diocletian museum in Rome from Berlusconi's residence, where they are temporarily placed.

The statues of Mars and Venus were dug up near Rome nearly 100 years ago.

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