No to foreign directors for 20 supermuseums: Lazio Regional Administrative Court rules against Franceschini reform

The Lazio Regional Administrative Court, in its rulings 6170/2017 and 6171/2017, published yesterday, has in fact soundly rejected the appointment of museum directors as envisaged by the Franceschini reform. The Regional Administrative Court thus upheld the appeals brought by Francesco Sirano and Giovanna Paolozzi Strozzi (both candidates in the selections) against Mibact: the procedure for the selection of directors, according to the Court, would have been characterized by several flaws.

In particular, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court found “admissible and well-founded” the complaint concerning the way the of conducting the oral test (some candidates were allegedly allowed to take the interview remotely, through Skype, without verbalizations of external auditors, when instead during the oral tests it was necessary to ensure “free entry to the premises” where they were held, to anyone who wished to attend), and affirmed that the selection notice"could not admit the participation of non-Italian citizens in the competition since no derogatory rule allowed MiBACT to recruit public managers outside the indications, peremptory, expressed by Art. 38 d.lgs. 165/2001“ (d.lgs. 165/2001 is the Testo Unico del Pubblico Impiego, and Article 38 states that foreign nationals can access jobs in Italian public administrations that do not involve the direct or indirect exercise of public powers or do not pertain to the protection of the national interest. Again, given the minimal discrepancies between the scores assigned to individual candidates, the Tar found that this discrepancy ”merited a more punctual and incisive express manifestation of judgment on the part of the commission in the evaluation of the interviews and in the attribution of the relevant scores, rather than cryptic and involuted reasons."

The Tar has therefore ordered the annulment of the selections of five museums for which Sirano and Paolozzi Strozzi appealed: these are the Ducal Palace in Mantua, the Galleria Estense in Modena, and the National Archaeological Museums of Taranto, Naples, and Reggio Calabria. Now it is to be expected that MiBACT will appeal to the Council of State, which will have the final say.

All the insights from Windows on Art on MiBACT reform and autonomous museum director selections: click here

No to foreign directors for 20 supermuseums: Lazio Regional Administrative Court rules against Franceschini reform

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