In Venice, Civic Museums closed until April 2021, workers laid off 100 percent

Sensational in Venice: the Civic Museums, a complex that includes many of the Venetian capital’s major cultural venues (the Doge’s Palace, the Correr Museum, the 18th-century Venetian Museum at Ca’ Rezzonico, the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro, the Museum of Glass in Murano, Mo, the House of Carlo Goldoni, the Lace Museum, the Clock Tower, Palazzo Fortuny, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo) will remain closed until April 2021, and that, for now, regardless of the decisions the government will make after Jan. 15, when the Dec. 3 dpcm that imposed the lockout for cultural venues will expire, and a date that could see the museums reopen.

Workers, the unions point out, will be left at home, put on 100 percent layoff until April 1. The Civic Museums of Venice can do this because the governance of the institutes is the prerogative of an entity with legal personality under private, nonprofit law, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, which manages yes a public patrimony but being a foundation under private law (although its board of directors is composed of members who are all appointed by the City of Venice, the “Promoting Founder” according to its bylaws) is not subject to the same rules as the public administration as far as workers are concerned.

This isall perfectly legitimate, of course, but it is enough to incur the wrath of the unions on the one hand and to make the sector debate on the other, since a priceless public heritage such as the Venetian museums is tied to quasi-corporate considerations, since the lack of tourists causes major economic shortfalls for the Foundation, which must act accordingly. Again according to the Statute, in fact, the foundation’s operating fund is made up of “income and revenues from its assets and activities,” revenues from institutional, ancillary, instrumental and related activities, and “any” contributions from public bodies: this means that it is not obligatory for the City and other public bodies to support the foundation financially. And the Municipality has never allocated large contributions to the Foundation, although it must be said that given the high influx of tourists that since 2008 (the year of the “spin-off” of the museums from the Municipality) have guaranteed significant resources to the Foundation, the museums have never had major needs since they were able to provide for their needs independently.

In short, the Foundation’s ability to self-finance itself and to close its budgets in the black thanks mainly to income from the Doge’s Palace is now proving to be its doom, as the Covid-19 pandemic already caused a 7 million euro hole in July: a hole that now, with the new closures, has expanded further. The indefinite closure until April, according to Daniele Giordano of Cgil Funzione Pubblica and Mario Ragno of Uil Funzione Pubblica, represents “a serious and incomprehensible decision that undermines the very ability of the Foundation to resume its activities. A choice that goes completely against all the externals of the Brugnaro Council, which has constantly preached the reopening of activities and instead, precisely on culture, makes an opposite choice.”

And then there is the workers chapter. “What the Board of Directors has determined,” Giordano and Ragno write, “also has serious repercussions on the workers who are put on 100 percent layoff until April 1. It is good to remember how the Museums Foundation workers have been on layoff for most of 2020, helping to save the Foundation as much as 600,000 euros. Therefore, the workers have already made several sacrifices that do not justify what has been decided by the President of the Foundation and the BoD, who are not proving themselves up to the task of building new programming to give the Museums Foundation a future. The BoD wants to save an additional 620,000 euros in three months when the Foundation, thanks precisely to state contributions, has produced a profit of almost 2,000,000 euros. This means that the Foundation has increased its assets, which now stand at about 9,000,000 euros available. Those resources are undoubtedly the result of the work of the past years, it is unthinkable that we do not recognize that those numbers are the result of the work of the people who work in the Foundation and that it is not only related to the use of the facilities, but above all to planning, preservation of assets, scientific planning and all those activities that if put into total suspension as is about to be done can result in a considerable loss for the Foundation itself.”

So, for Giordano and Ragno, the Civic Museums Foundation would rather “eat from public resources,” those of the layoff fund, “when it could instead use its own resources to invest, relaunch activities and guarantee income and employment for workers.” The foundation, the unions then point out, has also indicated that it will not recognize the accrual of vacation and salary shares that would accrue during layoff periods in the absence of a union agreement.

The unionists conclude by addressing themselves directly to the president of the Fondazione, Mariacristina Gribaudi, and to the board of directors: “In 10 months of emergency,” they write, “this president and this board of directors have not produced any plan for the revival of culture in Venice and for rethinking the role of the Fondazione. The work of those who work in the Foundation is not just about opening doors or gates, but about so much professional and qualified work that makes it possible to guarantee a high-quality enjoyment of our cultural and scientific offerings.” Finally, Cgil and Uil announce that they will write to the prefect of Venice “to make sure that the government is punctually informed of how public resources are used, which in this city suspends culture regardless of government decisions jeopardizing the possibility of giving a new project to the access to culture in Venice.”

In Venice, Civic Museums closed until April 2021, workers laid off 100 percent

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