As the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy grapples with the aftermath of mass displacement and destruction from record flooding, state museums across the country will raise ticket prices to help fund recovery efforts. Last week Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni approved A €€2 billion (~$2.15 billion) aid package funded in part by a €1 (~$1.07) museum admission price hike from June 15 to September 15.
The move comes amid worrying news about the impact of the floods on Italy’s cultural heritage. In recent weeks, books and manuscripts dating back hundreds of years from the Trisi library in Lugo and other devastated sites have been recovered from the mess and transferred to Cesena to be frozen in industrial freezers as a means of extracting moisture to prevent further damage before attempting restoration.
Emilia-Romagna is home to the cities of Bologna, Parma and Modena and is one of Italy’s main agricultural regions. The region was painfully going through a months-long drought this made the terrain less absorbent for the 20 inches of rain that bombarded the land over a two-week period. Tragically, 15 people were killed, more than 30,000 inhabitants had to evacuate the area, approximately 5,000 farms have been affected and nearly a million pounds of wheat crop has been destroyed since the floods began, leaving several years of damage in the area. Heavy rains have impacted the area archaeological and heritage sites as well as the Malatestiana Library in Cesena and several frescoes kept in the Museo delle Cappuccine in Bagnacavallo, in addition to the Trisi Library.
However, despite the catastrophic damage caused by the unprecedented weather incidents, not everyone sees the point in raising ticket prices at state-run museums. Citing concerns about social equity and pointing to statistical evidence of declining trends in cultural patronage, archeology professor Giuliano Volpe told the Italian daily Fatto Quotidiano that the government should consider other avenues of funding such as taxes for purposes.
“Italy has one of the lowest levels of cultural life among OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries,” Volpe said. “Nearly 50% of the population does not even have a minimum level of cultural life: that is to say, they don’t read a book, they don’t go to a museum, they don’t go not to the theater and not to attend a concert. So lowering even further the level of cultural life, which is and must remain an essential right for all citizens, I think is not a good choice.
It should be noted that this decision is part of the Earlier Ministry of Culture efforts to raise museum admission fees in response to climate emergency protests targeting works of art and monuments of historical and cultural significance across the country.
“The continuous attacks and crimes that are increasingly occurring and damaging our artistic and cultural heritage force us to rethink and strengthen their level of protection,” Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said in a statement. statement at the end of last year when floating the idea of raising admission prices. Sangiuliano disagreed with climate awareness protesters — especially those of Ultima Generazione (the last generation), who staged a protest at the Trevi Fountain in Rome on Sunday May 21, in recognition of the floods in Emilia-Romagna caused by climate change.
