Italian Government Takes Steps to Oust Maxxi Museum Board



ROME — Less than two years after the opening of Maxxi, Italy’s national museum of contemporary art, the Italian Culture Ministry last Friday initiated procedures to replace the board of directors of the foundation that manages the museum with a government-appointed administrator. The decision was taken, according a terse statement issued by the ministry, after the board failed to approve the 2012 budget, which is expected to register a “significant” deficit.

At a hastily convened press conference over the weekend, Pio Baldi, the president of the Maxxi Foundation, said he had been “very surprised” by the ministry’s decision, because the Maxxi “is a museum that’s doing very well,” with some 450,000 visitors in 2011 alone.

Financing is at the heart of the dispute.
Maxxi’s annual budget in 2011 was about $12 million, of which the museum was able to cover 59 percent through ticket sales and sponsorships, while the state contributed about $5 million. But budget cuts have drastically reduced state subsidies to museums. In the case of Maxxi, future state contributions are expected to be under 2 million euros, which is about $2.6 million, a year, and the museum will be expected to make up the difference with private sponsors. When the board was unable to raise that much, the culture ministry decided to intervene to replace it.

“The Maxxi has great potential for development and needs to aggregate private sponsors and new institutions” to increase its resources, said Mario Resca, the Culture Ministry official who oversees state museums. “This just hasn’t happened.”

But Maxxi officials point out that Italy offers few economic incentives or tax breaks to private sponsors of cultural initiatives, which many see as the main obstacle to getting financial support from private sources.

Mr. Resca agreed. “Italy needs to imitate the situations of other countries” and offer better tax incentives, he said.

.