The Italian Heritage Watchdog

Abstract

www.patrimoniosos.it is a website created in 2002 by a small group of volunteers in order to offer updated information to the public opinion on the situation of the art heritage in Italy and to give voice to people who share concerns about the various dangers of mismanagement, destruction or sale of historical buildings and works of art. The name was thought as a specific, polemical answer to a joint-stock company, named “patrimonio.spa”, which had been established by Italian law in that year and which aimed at privatizing what until then had been considered as common goods. Although the 2002 joint-stock company failed, the ‘philosophy’ which inspired it is still alive and the website goes on as heritage ‘watchdog’.