Report by Paris audit court sparks debate in Italy.

The iconic Spanish Steps have ended up at the centre of a dispute between Rome and Paris after a report by the French Court of Auditors ruffled feathers in the Italian capital.

The court asserted that the landmark staircase was built "with French funds at the beginning of the 18th century and then maintained for decades by the Pii Stabilimenti Della Francia, custodians of the assets from beyond the Alps".

The report criticises the management of five French churches in Rome, including Trinità dei Monti which sits atop the Spanish Steps, and with it claims ownership of the famed staircase, according to Italian state broadcaster RAI News.

Bilateral agreement

As a result of a historic bilateral agreement between France and the Vatican, a foundation called the Pieux établissements de la France a Rome controls a property portfolio of considerable value in the Italian capital.

The agreement derives from a decision taken in 1790 by Pope Pius VI who instructed the then French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, to group together the French religious buildings in Rome and place them under his tutelage.

The list of properties includes the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi, which houses three paintings by Caravaggio, Sant'Ivo dei Bretoni, Santi Claudio e Andrea dei Borgognoni, and San Nicola dei Lorenesi, as well 13 buildings in the historic centre including Villa Medici, seat of the French Academy in Rome.

Roman real estate

The Roman real estate managed by the foundation comprises 180 rental properties, offices, shops and apartments whose market value was estimated at €250 million in the late 2010s and which together generate an annual revenue €4.5 million, according to Le Monde.

Rents from these buildings "should guarantee the maintenance of the churches", according to the French judges, who claim however that these assets are not "adequately put to good use".

In relation to Trinità dei Monti, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Spanish Steps directly below the church were commissioned by French statesman and cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin, and financed by French diplomat Étienne Gueffier.

However the monument has been administered, restored and maintained with funds from Rome and the Italian state since the end of the 19th century, reports La Stampa.

Reaction

Rome's superintendent of cultural heritage, Claudio Parisi Presicce, responded to the debate by stating that the Spanish Steps "are a monumental place and of very high artistic value but they are also a public passage and are therefore without discussion an integral part of Rome, the capital of Italy".

Presicce added: "It is important to separate the assessments of the French Court of Auditors regarding the administration of the "Pieux e'tablissements de la France a Rome” from the management of the Spanish Steps, which from the 20th century onwards have always been maintained, restored and managed in all aspects by the municipal administrations of Rome".

The most recent restoration of the scalinata was in 2016 in a project funded with a €1.5 million donation from luxury jeweller Bulgari.

Ma cosa sarebbe la Francia senza l’Italia. Non possono fare a meno del nostro lusso, delle nostre opere, della nostra bellezza. Ma ora esagerano. Vogliono prendersi pure la scalinata di Trinità dei Monti. pic.twitter.com/SQNTMTcaCe

— Daniela Santanchè (@DSantanche) September 12, 2024

In a post on X accompanied by a photo of a Corriere della Sera article on the subject, Italy's tourism minister Daniela Santanchè lashed out: "What would France be without Italy. They cannot do without our luxury, our works of art, our beauty. But now they are exaggerating. They even want to take the Spanish Steps".

News of the report also triggered a backlash on social media in Italy, with the Mona Lisa inevitably being dragged into the debate.

Fabio Rampelli, deputy president of the chamber of deputies and a member of premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Fratelli d'Italia party, described the report's claims as "laughable".

"Right, we will send experts to the Louvre to make an updated survey of the assets stolen from Italy throughout history, especially that of the 19th century or donated by geniuses perhaps forced to give up renowned works of art that have made the Louvre the most visited museum in the world."

The outspoken art historian and former culture underscretary Vittorio Sgarbi also waded in: "The French want la scalinata di Trinità dei Monti? Then we must reclaim all the paintings from the Louvre that Napoleon took away".

Response from French Court of Auditors

"I am truly very surprised that one can interpret and distort the meaning of a report from the French Court of Auditors that is addressed to the French and in particular to the "Pieux Etablissements" for their management of religious assets in Italy", the president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, told news agency ANSA on Friday.

"I want to reassure our Italian friends", Moscovici said: "The report only asks for clarification on the situation of the assets", adding that clarifications are "always positive".