Private Partnerships Helping to Preserve Rome’s History, Holy Cross Professor Says

For centuries, prominent Roman monuments have been cleaned, repaired, and maintained through private funding. Even the iconic Colosseum underwent a $31 million restoration funded by Tod’s, a luxury Italian shoe brand.

Some Italians have worried this could lead to garish advertisements or shoddy work on some of the country’s more treasured landmarks. But, in an article by London-based business travel magazine Business Destinations, David Karmon, associate professor of art history and architectural studies advisor, said he believes the conflicting interests of the public and private sector could help provide an important balance in terms of planning restoration works.

Karmon, author of "The Ruin of the Eternal City: Antiquity and Preservation in Renaissance Rome," also emphasized the need to keep historical monuments accessible to the public, while furthering the interaction between modern culture and a vibrant past. “While the idea of giving the monument a new lease of life through reuse is very compelling, our interest in making these sites relevant to the present also has to be balanced against our obligation to transmit them intact to future generations,” Karmon told Business Destinations.

To read more, visit BusinessDestinations.com.