So the Italian government wants to ‘lease or even sell off some of the national treasures”‘ in its care. Will the private sector do any better at managing them? The government “strongly denies that Italy’s world-famous culture is under threat,” while critics fear that is. “At issue is a law passed in June, setting up an agency to make an inventory of state-owned monuments and ‘artistic and cultural assets’, with a view to selling them, leasing them or using them as security for loans. The measure was hotly contested by the centre left opposition.”