Dig deep to put the finishing touch to Vasari’s spectacular ceiling

The Italian Ministry of Culture and the charities Venice in Peril and Venetian Heritage are joining forces to raise 400,000 to buy a ceiling panel that Giorgio Vasari painted for the Palazzo Corner Spinelli. The Allegory of Hope (1541-42) is the final missing panel from the Triumph of Virtues cycle the Tuscan artist made for the Corner (or Cornaro) familys 15th-century palace in the San Marco area of Venice. It was owned by the British publisher Lord Weidenfeld, who died in January, and has bee