Museum openings at Christmas, success or flop? It's a clash over data

Was the opening of state museums on Christmas Day a success or was it a flop? In fact, in the days following the holidays it is a clash over the data, with Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano claiming the happy outcome of the openings, and unions and associations rattling off data before which the results instead appear extremely disappointing.

Yesterday, Dec. 26, the minister, after visiting Palazzo Barberini in Rome, said that “the first numbers that are coming in regarding the Christmas and Boxing Day openings are giving reason to the desire to make the national cultural heritage available to those who, during the holidays, wished to devote time to the contemplation of beauty. Tens of thousands of people over these two days passed through the entrance of an art gallery, gallery or archaeological site on a journey that led them, at the end of the visit, to be more aware of their roots and identity.” The Ministry then issued a statement where it gave provisional figures for the openings of state museums and archaeological parks on Dec. 25 and 26: 26,267 visitors at the Colosseum, 11,325 at the Pantheon, 9,286 at the Roman Forum and Palatine, 8,101 at the Uffizi, 7,357 at Pompeii, 5,332 at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, 4.954 at the Royal Palace of Caserta, 4,610 at the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo, 2,330 at the Borghese Gallery, 2,192 at the Pitti Palace, 2,081 at the Royal Museums of Turin, 1,505 at the Last Supper in Vinci, 1,378 at the Herculaneum Archaeological Park, 1,277 at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, 2,270 at the Boboli Gardens, and 19,120 at the Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia.

However, what the grassroots disputes with the minister is that he added up the Christmas and Boxing Day admissions: the novelty this year was in fact the extraordinary Christmas opening, for which an agreement with the trade unions was necessary (some of which, moreover, did not sign it, which explains why at Christmas the openings were only four hours, and moreover patchy: in Tuscany, for example, museums were closed on December 25). To cope with the December 25 overtime, the Ministry put up the sum of about 160,000 euros, offering, for the extra four hours, 210 euros for operators and assistants and 230 euros for officials. Boxing Day, on the other hand, is a day of traditional openness and customary attendance, since for many Italians December 26 is reserved for a trip out of town and for several international tourists it is not a holiday, which is why museums have always been quite popular on this day even in past years.

The first “unbundled” data on Christmas Day alone come from Apulia: here, the local branches of CGIL and UIL put out a communiqué stating that “the Christmas opening of museums has [...] entailed an economic effort on the part of the Ministry and much sacrifice for many workers, especially the outsourced ones who, unlike ministerial employees, had no choice nor an allowance comparable to that of their MiC colleagues. But with what results? If we look at Apulia, at the Archaeological Museum of Taranto, open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., only 3 admissions were recorded, at the Castello Svevo in Bari, on the other hand, barely a dozen.” At the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna, where the museum workers’ protest against Christmas openings was held, only one visitor was seen throughout the morning, according to the visitors themselves. Providing instead a tentative picture for the national territory is the association Mi Riconosci, which lists these figures: 200 admissions at the Colosseum, 10 at the Castello Svevo in Bari, 50 at Villa Adriana, 20 or so at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, 600 or so at Pompeii, 100 at Herculaneum, 4 at the Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields, 130 at the MANN in Naples, 45 at Palazzo Barberini, 25 at the Baths of Diocletian, and 3 at the National Archaeological Museum in Taranto.

So now the base is asking the MiC to release the data for Christmas Day only: “We ask the Ministry of Culture and Minister Sangiuliano,” write CGIL and UIL, unions that did not sign the agreement with the MiC for Dec. 25, “to make public the data of the Christmas Day turnout so that we can understand whether this initiative, in the face of very tight organizational timeframes, investment of public money and decent economic compensation only for ministerial employees, was successful or was, as it seems, a flop. We ask this so that a repetition of such an initiative in the coming years can be avoided, which is short-sighted, poorly reasoned and detrimental to the cultural sector, once again subjugated to the logic of profit and propaganda even on holidays despite the difficulties that grip it throughout the year.”

Image: MANN Naples, eastern wing. Photo: Luigi Spina

Museum openings at Christmas, success or flop? It's a clash over data

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