Civil service archaeologists and cultural heritage technicians condemn MiBACT cuts

We receive and publish a joint statement from the MiBACT Public Employment Archaeologists and the National Association of Technicians for the Protection of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, titled “Cultural Heritage: hit and sunk,” through which the two associations harshly condemn the latest cuts to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

Manovrina is an innocuous, almost reassuring term in its appeal to the journalistic jargon of the First Republic. Manovrina is a small, insignificant thing. Of little commitment. People watch the news, they don’t care: What do you want it to be? It’s the usual manvrina!!!

But today it is behind this vacuous diminutive that lies the definitive end of cultural heritage protection in Italy.

Weakened by the dismemberment of the Museums from the Superintendencies, frayed by an amalgamation of historic-artistic protection first, then archaeological, to architectural and landscape protection, lacking the tools to cope with a massive reorganization, forcibly demanded at zero cost by the government, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage receives a last, harsh broadside, suffering a drastic cut in the resources allocated to it: as many as 12 million euros less, which in such a complicated phase as the one outlined above becomes a tombstone on the effective possibility of exercising protection.

Moreover, the individual items related to the cuts speak for themselves: the chapter most penalized is the one related to the protection of cultural heritage, which will receive 5.455 million less than planned. To this figure must be added the cuts to specific items of protection: archaeological protection ( - 220,000 ), protection and v alorization of archival heritage ( - 599,000 ), protection and v alorization of library heritage ( - 992,000 ), and protection of fine arts and protection and enhancement of the landscape ( - 552,000 ). They make a total of 7.818 million euros less, compared to the expenditure forecast for 2017.

In this general shipwreck, however, there are those who do not cry: paragraph 6 of Art. 22 of the Decree in fact saves the great Museums, the flagship of the Franceschini reform. For them, no cuts, but rather the possibility of going beyond the limits provided by the regulations to make use of expertise and p rofessional services ... to support the smooth running of the institutes and ensure their operation. In essence, consultancy and services contracted out to save the Autonomous Museums from being broken up by the Ministry.

You know, in times of maneuvers the important thing is to save the ap parences, polishing the showcases of the great museums. Good for grinding tourist admissions and luxury catwalks for our politicians. So that the glitter of the family silverware hides with its shine, the painful agony of the Italian cultural heritage.

Pictured: the Collegio Romano, headquarters of MiBACT. Credit

Civil service archaeologists and cultural heritage technicians condemn MiBACT cuts

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