Letter: A Renaissance man to restore the Uffizi

Sir: I would like to congratulate the Independent on its support of the appeal launched for the restoration of the Uffizi.

The choice of the Italian Minister of Culture, Alberto Ronchey, as the administrator of any funds raised is not the bad joke the correspondent to yesterday's letters page suggests (3 June). Mr Ronchey, unlike many members of previous Italian governments, is a man of blameless reputation who has the signal qualification of not being a party man and of not having been a politician until he was called upon to occupy his present post.

His career has always been in journalism and he was editor of La Stampa from 1968 to 1973. He is impatient with bureaucrats and in April cut through years of prevarication on their part by simply decreeing that Italy's state museums, villas, parks, etc, would remain open all day and every day, when previously they were more often closed than open.

Yours faithfully,

ANNA SOMERS COCKS

Editor

The Art Newspaper

London, EC4

3 June