Mantuan mayors launch appeal to keep Peter Assmann at the helm of Ducal Palace

In a year and a half, Peter Assmann ’s term as director of the Ducal Palace in Mantua will end: the current director will most likely go on to direct the Tiroler Landesmuseum in Innsbruck. As the Gazzetta di Mantova revealed in recent hours, Assmann would have liked to stay on, but no response would have come from Rome: thus, the choice to return to his native land (Assmann, a 61-year-old art historian, is of Tyrolean origin as he was born in Zams, a small town near the ski resort of Sankt Anton am Arlberg).

The “defense” of the director has come from the mayors of the Mantuan area, who have joined in an appeal promoted by the first citizen of Poggio Rusco, Fabio Zacchi: the mayors, in particular, have written a letter-petition to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage asking it to confirm Assmann as head of the Ducal Palace when his term expires. Sixty-four mayors have signed on (among them Mattia Palazzi, mayor of Mantua), and the petition is open to signatures from anyone who wishes to join (signatures are being collected by the Society for the Ducal Palace). The full text follows:

"To the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities Dr. Alberto Bonisoli.
Dear Minister,
we are addressing you, as in the Tuesday, December 11, 2018 edition of local newspapers (’Gazzetta di Mantova’ and ’La Voce di Mantova’) there was reported the news of the decision of the Director of the Polo Museale di Palazzo Ducale in Mantua Peter Assmann to transfer at the end of his current contract with the MIBAC, therefore at the end of 2019, to the Directorate of the Tiroler Landesmuseen in Innsbruck (Austria) as he would have communicated several times to your Ministry the need to plan his future, giving his availability to continue in his post in Mantua, without receiving any answer.
Given that Director Peter Assmann has done an excellent job in these years in Mantua changing the face of the Ducal Palace, despite limited means and resources, opening the Gonzaga palace to the city and the territory with countless cultural and artistic collaborations, reorganizing and relaunching the museum collection with great results in terms of visitors, making a fundamental contribution to the marketing strategy of thetourist/cultural offer of our territory, involving all the Gonzaga sites in the province and planning a major event for next year such as the new exhibition on Giulio Romano that enhances above all our permanent heritage and not collections on temporary display, in support of what has already requested by the Mayors of the Municipalities of the Province of Mantua, we, the undersigned Society for the Ducal Palace with the members, the exponents of culture and civil society signed here, ask you to give your opinion on this matter so delicate and so relevant as it is the Direction of an institution decisive for the future of our land that is also yours.
With the sincere hope of your kind reply to this letter, we send you our respectful greetings."

Pictured: Peter Assmann. Ph. Credit Franz Johann Morgenbesser

Mantuan mayors launch appeal to keep Peter Assmann at the helm of Ducal Palace

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