Franceschini insists: for free Sundays, more people go to museums than stadiums. And he brings them back year-round

Cultural Heritage Minister Dario Franceschini is back to making football comparisons for his free Sundays at the museum (on the subject, see also the editorial published yesterday) and reiterates the announcement he made in early January: free Sundays will return stable year-round. The measure of former minister Alberto Bonisoli, who had cancelled them in the months from April to September, will thus be swept away.

“The experiment of free access to state museums and archaeological sites on the first Sunday of the month has been a great success,” Franceschini said. “On some Sundays it has become a real celebration of the people, with more people in museums than in Serie A stadiums. Over 17 million since it was established with some editions exceeding 430,000 visitors in state museums alone. Both the numbers achieved and the need to stabilize a habit have led me to confirm the permanence of free Sundays throughout the year, a system that has also proven to be more effective in terms of communication. I have therefore already sent to the Council of State the new draft decree that returns to the system happily experimented since 2014, which has produced a significant increase in knowledge and enjoyment of heritage and an increase in revenue: the data show a virtuous relationship between the number of free accesses and the number of paying visitors.”

MiBACT also released data on free Sundays since July 2014, which is when the measure was introduced: 1,554,444 visitors in 2014, 3,525,847 in 2015, a slight decrease in 2016 with 3.213,702 visitors, and then steady growth: 3,574,296 in 2017 and 3,591,969 in 2018, with the parenthesis of 2019 when there were 1,583,481 visitors because there were only six free Sundays. Overall, more than 17 million visitors took advantage of free Sundays.

Pictured: the Sunday at the museum data.

Franceschini insists: for free Sundays, more people go to museums than stadiums. And he brings them back year-round

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.