Discord over da Vinci design divides Locarno

After more than seven years of painstaking research to attribute the bastion of Locarno's 16th century castle to Leonardo da Vinci, it has taken little more than seven months for dissent to divide the city council, locals and the private owners of the monument.

Behind the dispute lies the council's intention to acquire the structure through compulsory purchase.

Dan Brown fans no-doubt added Locarno to their Da Vinci Code tour following last year's public attribution of the castle's bastion (rivellino) to Leonardo, though few could have predicted the drama that would rapidly unfold in the Ticinese resort.

Italian historian Marino Viganò was the first academic to voice his conviction (in 2004) that what had long been local legend might turn out to be historical fact.

His research convinced another world expert, Carlo Pedretti, director of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies in Los Angeles, that Leonardo da Vinci had indeed been to Locarno and was the architect behind the castle's bastion.

An excited Pedretti told a 2006 press conference that although he was convinced the proof was there, he didn't know when it would be found and made public.

"I'm absolutely sure that we will find a slip of paper, small though it may be, which will be written evidence of the presence of Leonardo in Locarno," he said.

"This in turn will allow us to prove that he designed the Visconti castle.''

The public announcement Pedretti was waiting for came in 2009, some seven years after Viganò commenced his research.

Viganò's efforts and those of other historians were aided considerably by cutting-edge technology: a 3D laser scan of the monument, undertaken by a team from the Institute of Contemporary Urban Project at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio.

Scanning enabled surveyors to not only map almost the entire structure of the rivellino down to the last centimetre but to produce detailed architectural plans and sections. They were also able to build an accurate model of the structure.

Results of the research – minus the hoped-for slip of paper which has failed to materialise – were condensed into a 365-page book by Viganò, Leonardo in Locarno: Evidence of attribution of the castle's rivellino (1507) and presented at an official ceremony in the city in June last year.

Locarno city council had voiced their desire to make a compulsory purchase of the rivellino – currently in private ownership – a number of years ago. Once the structure was officially attributed to da Vinci they pushed ahead.

Six weeks ago, on January 26, the council voted overwhelming to allocate 1.3 million francs for the acquisition, a sum derided as ridiculous by one of the castle's owners, Arminio Sciolli.

In a television interview with Ticino News on March 2, Sciolli made it clear that he is not interested in selling, even if the price was right. He is also confident that a legal precedent exists to support his position.

''In the past, steps were taken to acquire an inhabited castle, in good condition, to establish a museum of interest to the public but the federal court didn't recognise the compulsory purchase. The rivellino is analogous,'' he said.

Sciolli's proposal is a public-private consortium with the rivellino put to use as a venue for art exhibitions, a proposal which he suspects doesn't sit too well with Locarno council.

''I want artists of a high standard, not artists of the state,'' he said, dismissing a current exhibition in the city as humiliating. ''Do they want to make Locarno the cultural capital of Ticino with stuff like that?'' he asked.

Sciolli is of the view that the city council doesn't have the experience or the knowledge to turn Locarno into a cultural hot-spot.

He cites the case of Peter Greenaway, whose work was rejected by the film festival and the local tourist board. ''And that's just the umpteenth cultural scandal from Locarno . . . I don't think the city even knows who he is!''

Meanwhile, a referendum against the purchase of the rivellino is underway, launched by city councillor Silvano Bergonzoli of the Svegliati Locarno (Wake Up Locarno) party.

Justification for the referendum, according to the accompanying text, is that the rivellino is already a protected monument, irrespective of whether it's in private or public hands.

''The current owners are already hosting exhibitions at an international level and, as such, are promoting Locarno,'' it reads.

The referendum has until March 12 to gather the 1,251 signatures needed to force a vote. At the time of writing more than 1,000 locals have signed though the majority seem to be motivated by the financial implications of the purchase.

Some suggest the money would be better spent keeping the parks tidier or helping the elderly.

''Why buy a bunch of stones when there isn't even the money to cut the grass?'' questioned one protestor.