The Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua is in danger of closing: appeal not to let it die

There is an important museum for which the coronavirus crisis is in danger of being fatal: it is the Museum of the History of Medicine of Padua (MusMe), a small jewel of excellence, combining the repertoire of a traditional museum with state-of-the-art technological means, and able to welcome 50 thousand visitors a year (mostly school and university classes), which guarantee a good part of its livelihood. Without this flow of visitors, however, the flow of resources that enable the museum to work has also come to a halt: the Padua institute (which is under mixed management: the collection belongs to the University of Padua, the premises are owned by the Province, and the operational management is entrusted to a private company) needs about 20 thousand euros a month to work, and the contribution of funders comes to 90 thousand euros, the rest being guaranteed by the tickets that visitors pay. To avoid the closure of the museum, about 140 thousand euros would be needed to date.

The museum is celebrating its first five years of activity this year, and it seems downright mocking that, at a time when the public debate is focused on medicine and health care (and Padua itself has been one of the main centers of the fight against Covid-19), the Museum of the History of Medicine of Padua is in danger of closing for lack of resources. “It would be a mockery of fate, an irony of fate that the Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua, where modern medicine was born, would die and be the first victim of the coronavirus,” Vincenzo Milanesi, Rector Emeritus University of Padua and creator of the museum, said in an interview with regional RAI.

Currently, the museum’s 10 employees are on layoff. Therefore, the intervention of public and private funders is needed to prevent the museum’s closure. The president of the province of Padua, Fabio Bui, has therefore launched an appeal to save it. “The closure of the Museum of Medicine in the year of the health emergency in which Padua has become a model of national and international reference, would be an unforgivable snub for everyone,” he said. “Not only would culture, education, and tourism lose out: the very image of a city and a territory that has written much of its history and GDP on medical science is at stake. It is no coincidence that Padua is still a point of reference for scientific research and a rare case of excellence in terms of fruitful collaboration between the public and private sectors. The MusMe itself is an example of this.”

“This is why I appeal to private individuals and, in particular, to medical, pharmaceutical, health care and scientific research companies, centers and foundations in general,” Bui concludes. “I am convinced that adopting MusMe at this particular time is not only a gesture of love for the city, its history and the future of so many young people who, by visiting this place, have fallen in love with medicine and science. It means putting one’s name and logo alongside a reality that, as soon as the return to normalcy allows, will be able to return any help in terms of promotion and image. In Veneto and in Padua there are many enlightened entrepreneurs operating in a sector that is today strongly growing as the medical-scientific one: I appeal to them to help us save the museum center in Via San Francesco.”

The matter of the Padua museum was also brought to Parliament, by Senator Antonio De Poli of Forza Italia, who the day before yesterday addressed a parliamentary question to Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini, recalling that the MusMe is “a new-generation museum that uses cutting-edge technological systems such as to tell the story of medicine from ancient discipline to modern science; winner of the eContent Award Italy for the best content and services in digital format in the eLearning & Science section; a pole of excellence in Italy for culture and a reference point for schoolchildren, it records about 50.000 visitors a year,” and asking the minister if it is possible “to provide a significant and adequate increase in the resources already provided for in the relaunch decree, in order to really ensure the functioning of museums and cultural places and prevent their closure, especially the MUSME, as an emblem of the excellence of Paduan medicine in Italy and Europe.”

The Museum of the History of Medicine in Padua is in danger of closing: appeal not to let it die

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