Art won't fill stomachs

The Spanish sculptor Miquel Barceló is putting the finishing touches to a huge work that will adorn the dome of 'Hall XX' at the United Nations Office in Geneva. The Spanish state covered part of the 20 million euros that the artist's work has cost. And 500,000 euros were apparently taken from a development aid fund. El Mundo expresses its disapproval: "Naturally, this is not about calling the artistic merit of the work of the Majorcan artist into question - everyone's entitled to their own opinion on that - but about the question of whether public money should be used to decorate the so-called 'Alliance of Civilisations', an initiative that was launched by [Spanish head of government José Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero during his first term in office and which today has been virtually forgotten. And although this is worthy of discussion, it is indeed an effrontery to use money that by law was intended for developing countries. Barceló's dome is no doubt a work of art, but it won't improve the situation of the poor."

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