Reform, criticism from Mi Riconosci collective: "Ministry of Cultural Heritage aims at privatization of museums"

Harsh criticism of Bonisoli reform by the collective Mi Riconosci? I am a cultural heritage professional. In particular, the movement points the finger at the first implementing decree, signed by Cultural Heritage Minister Alberto Bonisoli the day before yesterday: the measure includes a measure that opens to public-private foundations, and the list of mergers(full list here).

For Mi Riconosci, the decree, for internal use, is a “bolt out of the blue,” explains Flavio Utzeri: “with a mid-August decree, the Ministry carries out a series of seemingly inexplicable operations: such as merging the ruins of Aquileia with the Castello di Miramare in Trieste; the Gallerie dellAccademia in Florence with the Uffizi; the Cenacolo Vinciano with the Pinacoteca di Brera; all the national museums ofUmbria into a single institution. It is a move that threatens to throw away projects and funds of so many museums, a move that would be inexplicable if it were not for another passage in the decree: the task, assigned to the Directorate General for Museums, of encouraging the creation of new museum foundations to manage state museums. Then it is clear: the mergers are meant to bring everything into the same foundation. Can a resigning government perform such an important act for the future of Italian museums?”

“The 5-Star Movement,” adds Daniela Pietrangelo, a museum educator and expert on public-private relations in the cultural sector, “had won the elections by promising to abolish the failed Franceschini reform, which was going in the direction of privatization for Italian Museums; but once in the Ministry, they pursued the same project with conviction.” Pietrangelo, however, says she is not surprised by the measure: “Alberto Bonisoli comes from the world of private foundations and, despite his constant promises about wanting to keep state museums public, we knew the plan was in the air. Of course, to carry out such an act in the middle of August and passing it off as a reorganization of the Ministry, even in a decree that it is not permissible to make public, is of unprecedented gravity. Can the Ministry justify this will, which goes against what the party that leads it promised, and which is strongly opposed by the vast majority of Italians? The millions of euros thrown for the MAXXI in Rome and the Lyric and Symphonic Foundations were not enough?”

Finally, the activists of the collective call on Minister Bonisoli to answer publicly about the content of the decree, since, they conclude, “within the corridors of the ministerial offices a less and less concealed anger is smouldering.”

Pictured: the Collegio Romano, headquarters of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. Ph. Credit Finestre Sull’Arte.

Reform, criticism from Mi Riconosci collective: "Ministry of Cultural Heritage aims at privatization of museums"

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