Word: italian
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...Cisitalia 202 Gran Sport, a 1947 automobile whose svelte curves were emblematic of the epoch's streamlined aesthetic; and Piaggia's Vespa 150 GS, similar to the one ridden by Audrey Hepburn in the 1953 film Roman Holiday. Speed also played its part in the golden age of Italian cinema; witness the Lancia Spider that homegrown idol Vittorio Gassman drove in Il Sorpasso, a 1962 road movie dripping with dolce vita style...
...When it reaches the 1960s, the show grows patchier. Italian design was stellar during this era, but speed-related examples are scarce. A 1969 Olivetti typewriter symbolizes what qualified then for a new-found velocity in communications, while minidresses from Emilio Pucci and Missoni sneak into the show on the dubious grounds of their swerving, abstract patterns. A room dedicated to the flashing graphics of the 1960s Kinetic Art movement serves only to remind us that its finest exponents - Jean Tinguely and Alexander Calder - came from elsewhere...
...fascinating as the show is, the concept of speed ultimately loses momentum. Small wonder, perhaps, given that the two most important Italian art movements of the second half of the 20th century, Arte Povera and Transavanguardia, were the antithesis of all things speedy: the former championed the use of humble, often recycled materials while the latter marked a return to painting after it fell out of fashion during the postmodern art movements of the '60s and '70s. And surely it is no mere cultural accident that Italy's biggest recent contribution to the international Zeitgeist is Carlo Petrini's Slow...
...museums crawl out of the blast crater produced by the Rutelli campaign, it may be that the conversation on these possibilities will get seriously under way. In November, U.S. museum professionals met with their Italian counterparts in Rome to discuss ways to increase cooperation, for instance, by simplifying the process for loans from Italy. Meanwhile, the full-court press to enforce the laws continues. In January scores of federal agents raided four museums and an art gallery in Southern California in connection with an investigation into trafficking in Asian and Native American...
...still demanding that the Getty return one more of the key works in its collection, an ancient Greek bronze, Victorious Youth. Stately and supple-looking, with his right hand upraised to place on his own brow a laurel wreath that disappeared long ago, he was discovered at sea by Italian fishermen in 1964 and purchased by the museum 13 years later for a reported $3.95 million. The Italians say the bronze was smuggled out of Italy. The Getty insists it was discovered in international waters before being taken to Italian soil. For good measure, the boy was never Italian...