From ANSA:

A proposal to privatize the management of the Valley of the Temples, one of Italy's most important archeological sites, has kicked up a storm of protests.

The idea was the brainchild of Sicily's regional councillor for culture, Antonello Antinoro, who said that ''to make Sicily's cultural assets more profitable we must offer quality private operators a complete tourist attraction package for a period of 30 years''.

''I'm thinking along the lines of the Valley of Temples or the Greek theatre in Siracusa,'' he added.

''In return, private operators must guarantee a fixed fee and pay for related projects, such as road work or building hotels,'' Antinoro explained.

''In the case of the Valley of Temples, for example, we could ask a private operator to revamp the Palermo-Agrigento motorway and build a heliport,'' he said.

The Valley of the Temples is a ridge on which sit seven Doric style Greek temples dating back to the 6th and 5th centuries BC. They constitute some of the largest and best-preserved Ancient Greek buildings outside of Greece and are listed as a World Heritage Site.

According to Antinoro, ''a list of candidate sites would have to be drawn up together with the councillor for tourism and, in my view, should include the ancient Greek theatre in Taormina, the Greek Temples in Selinunte and the Palatine Chapel,'' the Byzantine chapel of Sicily's Norman kings in Palermo's royal palace.

Antinoro even suggested offering the private sector the management of ''groups of artistic works in exchange for building a museum to house them in Sicily''.

Antinoro's proposal got an immediate thumbs down from the opposition Democratic Party (PD) with Filippo Panarello, deputy chairman of the Sicilian regional assembly's culture committee, observing that ''it would be a paradox if the region with the highest number of public employees decided to entrust the management of public assets to private parties''.

Leading archaeologist Andrea Caradini said he was ''very worried'' about Antinoro's proposal saying it reflected ''a sign of the disintegration of a sense of state''.

After recalling that the Valley of Temples ''is one of Sicily's most important archeological sites,'' Caradini said that ''it is true that the region of Sicily has managed the site badly, the same way the state had managed Pompeii badly. But to entrust its management to private operators does not ensure its protection''.

Also on the warpath was the Italian Environment Fund (FIA) which said that cultural assets like the Valley of Temples ''are and must remain public in virtue of their symbolic value''.

According to the FIA, ''the state cannot give up its responsibilites. It must defend what belongs to everyone and is a patrimony of humanity''.

The environment group Legambiente said that Antinoro's proposal ''got off on the wrong foot. This proposal starts at the end and works backwards. It presents a solution before first determining what the final goal should be''.

I know there are already a pile of 'private' sites in Italy, but doesn't privatization of archaeological sites increase the potential for looting of same?