Museum closures: Codacons appeals to the Tar, but the decision is postponed

Codacons has requested, in an appeal filed Nov. 7 with the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, the immediate reopening of museums throughout Italy.

The appeal calls for the suspension of the November 3, 2020 Dpcm, which provides for suspending, in order to counter and contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus throughout the country, the exhibitions and services of opening to the public of museums and other institutes and places of culture.

"With the so-called ’Colosseum Decree’ the opening to the public of museums and places of culture is considered an essential public service, like schooling, health care and transportation, to which the levels of essential services apply,“ Codacons writes in the appeal.” “The essential public service is the one that the community can in no case do without (see Constitutional Court no. 31/1969), in fact the same system prohibits its interruption (the reference is to art.340 penal code). It is clear, therefore, that the November 3, 2020 DPCM contrasts with the provisions that qualify the opening of museums and places of culture to the public as an essential public service. Alternatively, the same should have been regulated according to the division of areas (red, orange and yellow), assigned in relation to the degree of risk to which citizens are exposed. Consequently, the Decree in question should have differentiated the modalities of use of the service according to the color assigned to each region [...] The challenged DPCM does not consider that access to museums, if regulated with quota entrances and time limits for access, in compliance with the recommendations of the CTS as well as the relevant guidelines, if applied with severity and control cannot contribute to the spread of the virus.”

It continues: “The association then stresses the serious disparities in treatment introduced by the Dpcm, where for television shows open to the public it does not provide for any suspension, just as it does not close schools which, rightly, being places of production of culture and education on a par with museums, remain open in the initial classes despite being very risky for contagions. For these reasons, Codacons, together with Sutri Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi, has asked the Lazio Regional Administrative Court to suspend the November 3, 2020 Dpcm in the part in which, illegitimately and in a completely discriminatory way, it provides for the closure of all museums on Italian territory.”

Also participating in the legal initiative is the mayor of Sutri, Vittorio Sgarbi, who signed the appeal.

On the same day, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court postponed the decision on the appeal filed by Codacons to December 2, 2020. For the Tar,"the conditions do not exist to order the granting of the aforementioned petition pending the celebration of the council chamber, which should be set for December 2, 2020, since it is an appeal to be dealt with under the ordinary procedure."
Against the decision of the Tar, Codacons and Sgarbi have appealed to the Council of State, since for the Tar, postponing the decision to December 2 does not result in serious damage to culture.

Pictured: visitors to the Borghese Gallery during the first day of reopening last May 18.

Museum closures: Codacons appeals to the Tar, but the decision is postponed

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