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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The Dynamic Duo Saving Pompeii
An Italian prince and an art-theft sleuth are charged with rescuing the 2000-year-old
archeological site from ruin
By JENNIFER CLARK
Jan. 30, 2014 8:29 p.m. ET
Pompeii Zuma Press
Italy's ambitious plan to save the ancient city of Pompeii is in the hands of an odd couple: a police
general who helped pry looted Italian antiquities away from top U.S. museums, and Emanuele Filiberto of
Savoy, grandson of the last king of Italy—and a winner of Italian TV's "Dancing with the Stars"—who has
been recruited to attract investors.
Italian authorities hope the two can preserve the 2,000-year-old archaeological marvel that has been
decaying for decades.
The United Nation's cultural agency, Unesco, has set a deadline of Feb. 1 to approve Italy's €105 million
($143 million) plan to save the site, which has remained frozen in time since the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount
Vesuvius that buried the ancient city and its inhabitants in ash.
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The Dynamic Duo Saving Pompeii - WSJ.com
Giovanni Nistri Zuma Press
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The Italian government has gone into overdrive trying to
preserve Pompeii since 2010, when a building at the site, the
so-called School of the Gladiators, collapsed. The incident
caused an international uproar because Unesco had been
warning about "serious structural problems" at Pompeii since
1996. Italy had already spent €79 million for emergency
restorations at the site from 2008-2010 but critics said those
efforts focused too heavily on tourism and not enough on
core maintenance. In 2010, the Italian government called in
Unesco to provide expertise in drafting a plan to prevent
further damage at the site.
While the current plan is expected to be approved, Unesco has said that if it isn't executed properly it will
place Pompeii on its "World Heritage in danger" list—an embarrassing admission that Europe's fourthlargest economy is incapable of maintaining its own cultural heritage.
With about 2.3 million visitors in 2012, Pompeii is Italy's third-most visited monument, behind the Vatican
Museums and the Roman Forum but ahead of the Uffizi Museums in Florence, which drew 1.7 million
people.
Italy's Culture Ministry appointed Giovanni Nistri, an art-theft specialist, to run the project, giving him
special administrative powers to make sure the effort is executed on time, on budget, and without
attracting the interest of organized crime endemic to the Naples area where the site is located.
The "Great Pompeii Project," funded by the Italian
government and the European Union, includes restoration
efforts, maintenance, a new drainage system and better
closed-circuit television surveillance by the end of 2015.
Prince Emanuele Filiberto WireImage/Getty Images
The tiny adjacent town of Pompei is hoping that 42-year-old
Prince Emanuele Filiberto, a former hedge-fund analyst at
Banque Syz in the mid-1990s, will be able to tap his network
of wealthy investors for the city's plan to build a park north of
the site and increase hotel capacity, which is currently just
700 people per night.
Claudio D'Alessio, the former mayor of Pompei, asked the prince to get involved when they met on one of
the prince's visits to the town's shrine to the Virgin Mary. The prince's links to Pompei date to his
grandfather, the former king, who bestowed the town with independent status 86 years ago.
"We want to build the park to stop 'hit and run' tourism," said Mr. D'Alessio. "Emanuele Filiberto can use his
international relationships to bring in private investment."
The city probably had an eye on the Paris-based prince's celebrity profile as well. In 2009 he appeared on
the Italian version of "Dancing With the Stars" —and won. Since then, the telegenic blue-eyed royal has
hosted four television shows in Italy, appeared on a reality program and competed on the top-rated San
Remo song festival, coming in second with the song Italia Amore Mio.
Before the prince begins his investment campaign, the site will need to be secured by Mr. Nistri. A career
military police officer with a courteous manner and neatly-clipped gray hair, Mr. Nistri, 57, ran a team of
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The Dynamic Duo Saving Pompeii - WSJ.com
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carabinieri police based in a Baroque palace in Rome from 2007 to 2010. The team tracked down millions
of euros of art stolen from archaeological excavations. Before that, he was involved in negotiations with
the Getty museum for the restoration of plundered antiquities.
His new challenge may be more difficult. In addition to keeping Naples' powerful Camorra crime syndicate
from winning the government contracts, Mr. Nistri will be in charge of policing a Unesco-requested "buffer
zone" around the site, protecting Pompeii from the sort of unauthorized building that has marred the area
surrounding the Greek temples in Agrigento, Sicily.
"We want Pompeii to become a symbol of the sort of policies Italy is capable of enacting to protect and
enhance the value of its cultural heritage," said Culture Minister Massimo Bray.
Unesco has asked for the bulk of the money, or €85 million, to be spent on restoration. The budget also
includes plans for a surveillance system as well as plans to improve visitor services inside the vast
ruins—which currently amount to little more than an audio guide and signposts.
Write to Jennifer Clark at [email protected]
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