Maxxi museum faces closure

Italian art centre may be put under special administration as government acts on £650,000 hole in institution's account

The Maxxi museum in Rome is facing closure just two years after it opened. Photograph: Alamy

The Italian government has 20 days in which to decide the fate of the country's national contemporary art museum, the Maxxi, which opened in Rome just two years ago and was designed by the Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

Lorenzo Ornaghi, the culture and heritage minister in Mario Monti's non-party government, has opened proceedings that could lead to the Maxxi being put under special administration. Officials said he decided to act following the discovery of a €800,000 (£654,000) hole in the 2011 accounts and a prediction that losses could reach €11m in the next three years.

The Maxxi crisis is the latest symptom of the funding crisis which is sweeping southern Europe and wreaking havoc on the arts.

The administrators of the museum said last year's losses were in part due to a 43% cut in government funding and had, in any case, been covered by profits carried over from the previous year. They expressed "surprise and concern" at the minister's decision which "damaged the international credibility" of the museum.

A ministry spokeswoman said a report from the museum's board had been submitted on Monday, triggering the 20-day period in which the government is due to decide.

Monti's cabinet was sworn in last November, charged with eliminating the budget deficit with a programme of spending cuts and tax increases so Italy can start to pay off its huge public debt of more than €1.9tn.

Hadid said the museum was an extraordinary success and had turned Rome into one of "the most important cities in the world for contemporary art". It was visited 450,000 times in 2011.

The management said it could not approve a budget for 2012 because of a further cut in its public funding.It said spending of €10m was the "indispensable minimum". A forecast by the museum showed its 2012 income falling short of that figure by more than €2m.