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Judge Rules in Marilyn Theft Case

Three men involved in stealing items from the Ferragamo Museum’s touring Marilyn exhibit while in transit to the Czech Republic in 2013 have been sentenced, reports the Prague Post.

“The Czech court has imposed five-year jail sentences on two men and a suspended sentence on another … Originally, the three men were charged with fraud, but the charges have not been proved.

The state attorney said the men took possession of a truck with items that once belonged to Monroe, without knowing what was inside. They were directed from Slovakia, by unknown members of an organized criminal gang.

The suspects pleaded not guilty. They said they had been hired to unload goods … No evidence proved that the suspects diverted the lorry from its supposed route. Nevertheless, the suspects knew that the goods they manipulated came from criminal activity, [Judge Tomas] Kubovec said.

The case of a suspected complicity of another three men has been handled separately by another court.

The three men reportedly unloaded items worth Kč 1.66 million at the place assigned to them. The valuable items included Monore’s diary, fan, fashionable pantyhose, a sofa, an invitation card for John F. Kennedy’s birthday and an issue of Playboy magazine.”

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Marilyn in Italy

Several new books about Marilyn have been published in Italy recently, including Cursum Perficico: The Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe, and I…Marilyn: Life, Cinema, Glamour.

Meanwhile, The Nation reports on the Marilyn exhibit at the Ferragamo Museum in Florence:

“‘Of course I thought about a concept,’ says Stefania Ricci, the museum’s director and the exhibition’s co-curator with Sergio Risaliti. ‘I wanted to underline that she had a brain, she was a businesswoman, she was intelligent, she was a wonderful person and actress in cinema and wardrobe. But [exploring] the photos, we found that many of the photographers, when they made their photographs, had in mind a piece of art.’

The more they explored the history of those countless, compelling images of Monroe, by some of photography’s greats, the more the theme began to make sense.

‘I found that Cecil Beaton wrote that when he made photos of Marilyn he thought about Greece, about rococo, about pieces of art,’ says Ricci. ‘And Andre de Dienes wrote, during 1946 to 49, that Marilyn [is] like the Venus of Botticelli, like Leonardo da Vinci’s Leda and the Swan.'”

For more updates and to connect with Italian fans, why not join this Facebook group, Marilyn Monroe – Italia.

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Ferragamo Exhibit Opens in Florence

A major exhibition dedicated to Marilyn has opened at the Ferragamo Museum in Florence, Italy, and will stay until January 2013. (For those of us who can’t make it, an accompanying book, Marilyn, will be published in August. You can also watch a video here.)

“The exhibition is curated by director of the Museo Ferragamo, Stefania Ricci, and Sergio Risaliti and enjoys the patronage of the Tuscany Region and the Municipality of Florence. Many other major museums have loaned their works for this exhibition. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, for example…” – Milady

“The exhibit makes a point to illustrate the classic art and sculpture Monroe referenced in her photos–that famous 1962 George Barris photo of Monroe in a chunky sweater on the beach recalls a Botticelli Venus-like image, Ricci and Risaliti point out.” – Fashionista

“Yet there is something touching about seeing the star not as a movie diva, interpreted by contemporary artists like Andy Warhol, but as an eternal beauty. The curators have achieved the unexpected, a fresh take on a woman who once said these wistful words: ‘I want to be an artist, not a pin-up. I don’t want to be sold to the public like a celluloid aphrodisiac.'” – New York Times

“I met the curator Stefania Ricci after the show when I was buying the book. The book alone is a masterpiece. Signora Ricci pleased me very much when she said ‘Marilyn was a great, great actress’ hear hear. If you do anything before you die, get an Easy Jet to Florence and come to see Marilyn at the Ferragamo Museum. It is not only the best exhibition ever staged about Marilyn Monroe, it is one of the finest curations of any subject I have ever had the privilege to see.” – James Sherwood