Italy considers privatising its art galleries

February 26, 2002

Free Market Foundation

When Italy’s minister of culture, Giuliano Urbani, proposed last year that the state’s cultural-heritage sector be opened to private management, he raised a furore. Some 37 of the world’s most powerful museum directors signed a petition calling it a dangerous scheme.

But since 1993, the private sector has been active in Italian museums and archaeological sites – running concessions for ticketing, bookstores, cafes, merchandising and other services.

In the process, Italy’s cultural heritage has been modernised with long-shut museums being opened, hours extended, tax incentives created for arts patrons and reforms instituted in the arts ministry.

Privatisation makes particular sense in Italy, which doesn’t have the endowments such as those that keep American museums afloat.

Taking privatisation a step further would provide additional benefits since in the existing system museum directors do not have the power to hire or allocate their own staffs and also face an antiquated job structure made up almost entirely of guards.

Source: Frederika Randall, Privatise the Arts in Italy? Egads!
Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2002.

For text (WSJ subscribers)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,4286,SB1013658427235792280,00.htm

For more on Privatisation Innovations http://www.ncpa.org/iss/pri

FMF Policy Bulletin\20 February 2002