An increasingly fragile glass. Murano’s difficult year

Nella The most famous ‘floating glass factory’ in the world there are those who shake their heads saying that nothing will ever go back to the way it was before. And in fact, even if some recovery is visible, it is difficult to keep pessimism at bay in Murano. We are in an island of 4,500 inhabitants transformed in the 13th century into an ante-litteram industrial districtwhen in 1291 a decree from the Republic of Venice ordered the transfer of all the furnaces to Murano. Here we grow up on bread and glass. Or rather, we grew up.

In fact, since 2020 everything seems to have changed. First Covid with the blockade of tourism, the turbulence linked to the supply of raw materials, the fears and uncertainties that certainly do not encourage us to purchase anything but essential goods such as artistic craftsmanship. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and gas prices skyrocketing which for the Murano furnaces translated into gas bills going from one month to the next from 30/40 thousand euros to 250/300 thousand.

“Fortunately the gas emergency has been resolved – he explains to AGI Giancarlo Ferro, administrator of Mazzega Glass Factory – but now we are dealing with Trump’s tariffs, and it is enough to say that we sell 80% in America to understand what this could mean. Then there are the wealthy Russian tourists who are missing, in short, it is certainly not the best year. Compared to pre-Covid we are talking about 30/35% less, which is no small thing.”

The data speaks clearly. In 2019 the Statistics Office of the Veneto Region estimated the Murano artistic glass district in 405 companies and 3,451 employees. A few months later, in 2020, the Promovetro Consortium mattered 150 companies and just under 800 employees. And the trend is not reversing.

“The market is certainly not calm, as with all small companies, nothing is enough, a lack of work or even an excess is enough to create serious problems – he explains Marco Nason, one of the administrators of Nason Morettia company with 102 years of history behind it and artistic glass made in 1930 for Gabriele D’Annunzio – we are not elastic, we have very high costs for raw materials and gas and the processing of the product is complicated (it should not be forgotten that the ovens require up to two weeks of switching on even just to reach the temperature, ed.). Today we are between America’s about-face and the absence of wealthy Russians. And then there are the wars which certainly don’t encourage people to buy artistic craftsmanship: there is no room for great optimism.”

Labor is another exposed nerve. Very scarce, decreasing and very complicated to find. “Even if you want to hire, who do you find? First of all, it’s not a given that a boy will be able to become a master, because uncommon artistic skills are required. And in any case, it takes many months of training just to learn how to collect oven glass, to become an expert glassmaker it takes many years – explains the public relations manager of the Vetreria Artistica Vivarini, Enrico Lazzarini – something recovered after Covid and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, but this year there has been a new downward decline. As far as we are concerned, the year that is about to end has not been exactly exceptional but something has been done. Let’s hope for the future.”