The thread is red. From Mont 'e Prama to ancient Leningrad the pass is 3,240 kilometers long. We are on the other side of Europe, on the edge of the frozen land of Russia. The chest of documents of this history, however, is armored in the Region of the Nuraghi. The first crack erupts on the scene when a river of public money spent on a project conceived a thousand miles from the Hill of the Giants emerges. What we are about to tell you is yet another chapter of a story with a double face: on the one hand the misery of investments in Mont 'e Prama, with real state alms and on the other staggering figures that have remained hidden in the financial codes of the “Heritage Tourism” project. Only after the publication of our investigation on the management of the Giants, from the excavations to the ghost museum, from the vineyards that were first authorized and then expropriated, did details emerge until now unknown.
The documents "sing"
To "sing" are the documents, the figures, the assignments, the companies involved, the relationships and an avalanche of money, multiplied out of all proportion in a very short time. Compared to the previous episodes of our investigation we must update the figures allocated, committed and spent in this Sardinian-Russian operation. The acts that reconstruct the steps that multiply the initial sums are marked by at least three resolutions of the last two regional councils. The first is 44/31 of 22 September 2017. It is on that occasion that the Pigliaru junta begins to allocate the first sums for a project that is still "covered". The chapter is that of "Brand Policies" to be made explicit with the "development of the heritage tourism segment for the promotion of the island in international markets through its originality".
Secret Russian street
The Russian way of the Giants is still a secret. Insiders, however, know that the route leads to St. Petersburg. The chapter aims at "Building an international network between museum institutions for the organization of a system of events and exhibitions on great civilizations". The Giants are never mentioned, much less Putin's land. The mother tongue interpreters, however, know that the mission is already written. The allocation is just an appetizer: one million and two hundred thousand euros to spend on exhibitions and travel. An avalanche of money in the presence of nothing spent in the Mont 'e Prama Hill. The legislature is ending. It is February 22, 2019 when the outgoing regional council remits that allocation. Without any stated reason, the figure is almost doubled: from 1.2 million euros to two million euros. In that act, however, for the first time, a memorandum of understanding signed by none other than Putin's promised land, in St. Petersburg, appears. Signed by the Hermitage Museum, the Sardinia Region, the Sardinia Foundation, the Municipality of Cagliari and the Polo Museale of Sardinia, that of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.
Giants holiday group
The resolution is elusive: it takes note of an international seminar and an exhibition at the Manifatture Tabacchi in Cagliari, but it still does not declare the “Vacanze Giganti” tour. To reveal the globetrotting cards is the current regional council. On 10 October 2019, the administrative acts explain the Russian route and beyond. It is here that the ambitions of "art forwarders" are made explicit, with lots of destinations that "will allow the promotion of Sardinia and its Nuragic civilization in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Thessaloniki, Barcelona and Naples". For the umpteenth time, and without any declared and documented reason, the expenditure to be incurred goes from one million 200 thousand euros to the impressive figure of 2.5 million euros.
Russian doubling
In practice, the cost of this "Sardinian-Russian" operation has more than doubled within a year. Even in this case, however, everything remains hidden. No news on who will set up this great archaeological "circus" between Russia and Europe, and who, above all, will manage the trip of the Giant. Nobody says it, but in someone's mind, in fact, there is the "crazy" idea of sending around the world a "very fragile" statue of the Giants, a boxer, which remained underground for 3000 years and is now forced to undergo world-map "stress" inside an iron chest, from the Russian steppes to the land of fires, as if they were carrying a "table ornament". The operation, however, is suddenly "enriched" with private details: the entire circuit will be managed by a company that seems "born" to transport that Giant from the Nuraghi Island to the Putin Museum, that Hermitage of St. Petersburg which the modern Tsar of Russia controls with one of his most trusted men. To reveal everything is a document within the Region.
Putin's lead appears
The armored deed is 132 of 11 March 2020 which reads: «It determines to contract and offer approval in favor of the“ Villaggio Globale International srl ”». This is where the pro-Russian company of Mogliano Veneto comes up, precisely the “Villaggio Globale International”, which without any public tender, without any competitive evidence, is indicated as the custodian of the Russian “verb”. In practice, the Sardinian Region entrusts the task of taking the Giant for a walk to a company chosen directly from Moscow. Apertis verbis wrote: «Given the deed certifying that“ Villaggio Globale International srl ”is the official partner of the State Hermitage Museum in Italy”. In short, on January 27, 2020, the company linked to the Putin Museum transmits the project and the offer to carry out the operation: the beauty of one million and 433 thousand euros for the design, construction, promotion and communication of the exhibition. The “ad personam” assignment has reasons that leave you speechless. It says: «The“ Villaggio Globale International ”is the exclusive agent of the requested service, it is the official partner of the Ermitage, it takes care of the secretariat of Ermitage Italia, it possesses the general and technical professional requirements».
Private deal
A little bit for a direct assignment, without tender, of such large amounts, definitely outside any admissible threshold, given that the regulations on services provide for an amount not exceeding 140 thousand euros. Doubts become boulders when the motivation is disarming: the company was chosen for its relations with Putin's men. How is it possible that an exhibition, in addition to four different locations, has been entrusted to the one “suggested” by Moscow? All elements that will probably have to be examined and clarified elsewhere. Behind the scenes hides the big business of event organizations, all functional to a system where money flows like rivers in flood. At stake are relations between representatives of the highest institutional levels and the Ermitage Italia Onlus Foundation based in Ferrara and then disappeared with a seraphic “cessation of all activities”. A para-institutional foundation dedicated to managing direct relations with Russia, transferred out of the blue to the Lido of Venice under another guise, with well-identified names and all attributable to the Sardinian-Russian operation. Penultimate detail: one million is still missing from the reporting of the 2.5 million. The last payment mandate for 242 thousand euros, the company in charge collected it on November 15, 2021. In less than a year, the Region paid him one million and 60 thousand euros. An avalanche of money.
It is forbidden to take risks
Last detail. In 2014 the Minister of Culture, also Dario Franceschini, with a decree set up a commission to assess whether the Riace Bronzes could move from Reggio Calabria to Milan on the occasion of the Expo. The verdict of the scientists was severe and resounding: it is not even mentioned. The arguments were precise and without frills, not referring only to the Bronzes but to all the great archaeological "Statues". The Commission wrote: "It underlines the worrying weakness, if not the absolute lack, of a scientific and cultural project, which should always be at the basis of the loan and the displacement of a work of art from its original place of conservation". According to the experts, there are "risks that are always linked to a shift, which, always - even in the conditions of maximum compliance with rigorous technical procedures - entails a stress and accelerator of the degradation process for all works of art". The Commission then asks "to strictly avoid the loan for operations of questionable or no scientific quality". The question is spontaneous: why is the statue of the Giant of Mont 'e Prama, which is at least 500 years older than the Riace Bronzes, tossed from St. Petersburg to Thessaloniki without anyone from the Ministry opposing it? Today, the poor Giant, on the road for a year, for the happiness of the last installment of payment to the pro-Russian society arrives at the Naples Museum. It will remain there until September. The millionaire journeys downloaded onto the shoulders of the Giants are over for now. Meanwhile, on the hills of Mont 'e Prama, the vineyard awaits the harvest.
