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MUSEUM

Italian unions blast palace chief for ‘working too hard’

Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has defended the director of a Unesco World Heritage Site after unions filed an official complaint accusing the man charged with revitalising a Versailles-style palace of working too hard.

Italian unions blast palace chief for 'working too hard'
Mauro Felicori directs the 18th-century palace in Reggia di Casertahoto: Tom Hapgood

Mauro Felicori, tasked in August 2015 with transforming the enormous Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples into a hot tourist destination, said on Saturday the complaint had come as “a slap” but he was determined to carry on.

The 18th-century palace in Reggia di Caserta, which boasts 1,200 rooms including a grand theatre, has featured in several films, from the 1999 and 2002 “Star Wars” flicks to “Mission: Impossible III” and “Angels & Demons”.

“The trade unionists have to realise that the tide has turned. And the free ride is over!” Renzi said on Facebook, after three unions wrote to Italy's culture ministry to denounce Felicori for working early mornings, evenings and weekends.

Renzi said that with Felicori, 64, at the helm, visitor numbers in February 2016 were up 70 percent on a year earlier, while takings were up 105 percent.

The unions’ complaints come amid a crackdown on work-shy public sector workers, after hundreds were caught clocking-in each morning before heading off to engage in more appealing pursuits.

Read more: Time up for work shirkers as Italy declares crackdown

The palace in southern Italy, inspired by the Palace of Versailles and built for the Bourbon king of Naples, was one of the largest buildings constructed in Europe in the 18th century and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1997.

Felicori was one of 20 “super directors” hired last year by the culture ministry to revive Italy's top public museums, including the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera and Rome's Galleria Borghese.

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MUSEUM

German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist

German police said Tuesday they have arrested one of two fugitive twin brothers from the so-called Remmo clan wanted over their suspected role in snatching priceless jewels from a museum in the city of Dresden.

German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist
Archive photo from April 2019 shows the Jewellery Room of the Green Vault. Photo: DPA

The 21-year-old suspect was detained in Berlin on Monday evening over what local media have dubbed one of the biggest museum heists in modern history, a spokesman for the police in the eastern city of Dresden said.

The twins had eluded German authorities when they carried out raids last month and arrested three members of the Remmo clan, a family of Arab origin notorious for its ties to organised crime.

Police then named them as 21-year-old Abdul Majed Remmo and Mohammed Remmo.

All five suspects are accused of “serious gang robbery and two counts of arson,” Dresden prosecutors said.

Police did not immediately name the arrested twin. His brother remains on the run.

The robbers launched their brazen raid lasting eight minutes on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on November 25th, 2019.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about the Dresden museum heist

Having caused a partial power cut and broken in through a window, they snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

Items stolen included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden's Royal Palace said.

The Remmos were previously implicated in another stunning museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in which a 100-kilogramme gold coin was stolen.

Investigators last year targeted the family with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of €9.3 million, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.

READ ALSO: €1 million gold coin stolen from iconic Berlin museum

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