Italy up in arms over Michelangelo's David rifle advert (BBC)
Italy's culture minister has expressed outrage over an advertisement by a US weapons firm showing Michelangelo's David holding a rifle.
Dario Franceschini said the image was offensive and violated the law.
A number of Italian media web sites carried the image of the advertisement showing David holding a bolt-action rifle.
The advertisement, from Illinois-based ArmaLite, carries the line "a work of art" in promoting the $3,000 rifle.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26501460
Apparently, the Italian gov't holds copyright to the statue and limits the use of images of it. Who knew ?
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crass commercialism is not limited to just American gun companies. If you order this "David" apron from this company, they will throw in a free key chain!
http://www.romegiftshop.com/apdavmadinit.html
Disguising angst about guns as outrage about the misuse of "art" is a hard sell. 
Wonderful people. HORRIBLE government(s). They aren't above a bit of official hypocrisy, IMO.
As I've said elsewhere, I think this is more about market share than anything else.
Here's one of Beretta's products, perhaps they're ticked that THEY didn't think of it first...?
not a $3K brand name sling. 
This is my rifle and this is my gun... etc.
Italy better not threaten to sue the Pastafarians or they will incur the wrath of the FSM, Aaarr!
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to the Italians...what can I tell you.
When you lived there, were you in the military?
And I'm kind of chiming in on the discussion between you and CTYankee because 1. I know you have lived there and 2. She is brilliant in terms of Art History and 3. You both know/are familiar with my 'hooks into' Italy.
There's another piece here - It doesn't make the news and doesn't register with Americans - but Italy is in an austerity budget mode.
To put it simply - why shouldn't they make a buck off of this? They need the money. Is it a silly brouhaha? I don't know. But anyone who thinks that Italy is some bastion of socialism is an idiot. National Health Care does not a socialist country make - they are very very capitalistic and a LOT is 'for show'. From the way you smoke your ciggy to the way you walk down the street and the way you get your money.
Hey - if my nephews get up to date text books in their class rooms next years because the Italian government wins - the more power to Italy I say. It opens the door to bring in more revenue - and hey. It's DU - Tax the rich! 
Off to read more between you and CT because this is how debates should be at DU - no stupidity - just discussion. 
...and the Guardia di Finanza burst in with with machine guns (likely made by Beretta) in full uniform. They basically told us to eat up/pay up and checked our recivuta fiscales (fiscal receipts) on the way out the door. They had also chased down a few customers who had left the place before they burst in and rounded THEM up for not having a 'fiscale.' The way I understand tax law over there, every fiscale has to be numbered consecutively, and IF--as they often do--they give you a receipt that is just a list of what you ate with the total, they're cheating the tax man. You gotta have that number on it, identified as such. I know doggone well I ate in as many places that were off the books as on, as did many folks. One of my favorite places in the world was in someone's basement, with no sign out front-but mama mia, the place was always packed and the food was cheap and first rate.
On another occasion, I was a party to my neighbor avoiding the tax man. I lived in a villa that was a hobby farm, basically. My landlord "owned" the road and the gate at the bottom of it, down a long hill. The neighbors across the street had to rely on the good graces of the landlord (or me) to be able to use that road. The gate, which I never closed (I was a good neighbor and there was another gate/wall round my villa, which was surrounded by nosy grannies in their homes who kept an eye on things for which I was suitably grateful), was connected to my house with a buzzer. Well, my neighbors wanted to do a little "addition" onto their house (basically refinishing an existing space and adding a little balcony), and they didn't want to pay the tax man for it, so we started keeping the gate closed while the work was being done--the deal was, if you could get it done before they caught you at it, you were home free. One day, on the weekend, the Tax Man Cometh! He's ringing my bell to beat the band, and I'm replying good old Non Capisco Gibberish "Dave's not here, man!" once I realized who was on the other end. It gave them time to conceal the evidence of their work (there was another way in, on a lumpy, bumpy unpaved road) and to affect being "not at home" should they have gone around the back road. Hey, they were good neighbors--they fed me for YEARS! One good turn, and all that...
I found the Guardia rather intimidating--imagine if our IRS agents wore combat gear and machine guns, or dark uniforms that looked like they were designed by a 3rd Reich tailor, with knee high leather boots! Their "new" uniforms which they adopted about seven years ago are actually LESS intimidating than the old ones!
Picture these guys coming to audit you!!!
And the GICO (Organized Crime Group of the GdiF) are even scarier...!
I love a good chat, and never get mad at differences of opinion. I think CT is our resident art genius--I defer on all things visual, artistic, and meaningful in that regard!
The point that they are really broke and looking everywhere for money (even amongst the notorious tax cheats) is an important one though. I guess they were doing better a half dozen or so years ago, they didn't go after Taiwan for this beauty... 
There are scads of examples when it comes to their cultural heritage where they've nodded indulgently; and I don't think the Culture Minister did any gatekeeping ahead of time, either.
Of course, there's also a third option--not anger over the "art" bit, not a need to extract a payment for the use, but a more amorphous reasoning--ANY publicity is good publicity! "Say, Martha, ya see the brou-ha-ha over the David statue in the pay-pah, hea-ah? Whadda-ya-say we take a vay-cay to It-lee this summah and have a look-see at the thing...?"
I have to wonder how many people now have the idea in their head that they need to go spend a little time viewing the cultural treasures of Bella Italia as a result of this imbroglio? I'm sure motivated to go back--but all I have to do is read an article about ANYTHING to do with Italy and I get that itch!
Those guys kind of look like my husband in his Italian Marine dress uniform pics! 
They just look hot to me! 
You're waiting for a handsome feller to come through the door...
I was sitting on my well-fed ass enjoying a bit of cappellini al limone with a nice jug of vino when those fellers came through the door yelling threats and preventing egress!
It's all about .... perspective!!! I think anyone would agree that yours is far better than mine!
They sell their products all over the world.
Products that are "designed to kill" too. They profit from that.
I think this is more about market share than anything else.
http://www.beretta.com/en-us/arx-100/
This particular case has some people choosing the Italian point of view because it's was a gun ad. While a small minority doesn't believe in Constitutional rights, most recognize that an Italian law doesn't apply here in the USA with our freedom of speech. Companies have made ads using the statue several times.
.......what does any civilian need with a 50-caliber sniper's rifle? Planning assassinations? Preparing for Der Tag?
They have a fig leaf covering the genitals on the statue, but that godawful rifle is displayed proudly. It's interesting to see what some people are offended by.
and we all know that the VPC is a gun-hugging right wing shill in the pocket of the ultimate evil the NRA ( 
).
Here's what they came up with, VPC sniper crime.
There are 46 cases there, the oldest of which was 1992. Most of them were nothing more than the person had a .50 cal confiscated from their "arsenal" when they were arrested. Often on drug charges, some on gun trafficking, and some felons in possession.
I counted 5 times where the rifle was actually fired, and 9 people were killed. 4 of those were ATF officers killed at the shootout in Waco, TX. 3 more were a rampage shooting in Denver that involved two handguns. Neither of these cases mentioned that anyone was actually killed by the .50 cal.
Compare that to about 6,000 or so murdered each year by handguns.
I'm not saying anyone needs a .50 cal. I have absolutely no interest in ever owning one. But it does seem to beg the question, why do we need to concern ourselves with them?
It's almost the same size as he is!!!
rofflesome!
