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10.12.2009
OPEN LETTER FROM THE CURATORS OF THE MUSÉE NATIONAL D´ART MODERNE TO THE FRENCH MINISTER OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dear Minister of Culture and Communications,
As you know, the Musée National d´Art Moderne, founding division of the Centre Pompidou, is a world known and unique museum in Europe for the profusion and diversity of its collections of modern and contemporary art (painting, sculpture, graphic art, photography, architecture, design, film, new media, books).
In addition, for the past 33 years, the temporary exhibitions organized by the Museum have appealed both to the specialist and the general public (as an example, the last Kandinsky Exhibition hosted 700 000 visitors in 2009).
Furthermore, the Musée National d´Art Moderne lends each year on average almost 3 000 works worldwide, being its partners the most important museums in the world, but also the regional museums in France where the loans of the Museum’s permanent collections are made. Hence, next May will open the Centre Pompidou-Metz with a massive loan of more than 500 works from the Collection.
However today, like many French cultural institutions within the state reform, the Centre Pompidou, tool of the French cultural scene and unique in its genre for its interdisciplinarity, is threatened. Indeed, the application of the Reform of French Public Administration (RGPP) to the Centre Pompidou will certainly have a devastating impact on its operations as 44% of its staff will have to retire in the next 10 years. More than two hundred jobs will disappear, which explains the current strike.
You are also aware that, the subvention of the Center Pompidou (given the meager increases associated with salary freeze) has failed to meet the overall increase in costs. Concurrently, fixed costs and costs related to exhibitions (works’ insurance, shipping...) have burst, greatly reducing our capacity for action.
Equally, the acquisition budget is shrunken since 2006, falling almost 30% even as prices for modern art and contemporary blaze.
At the present time, the operation of the Musée National d´Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou and its core missions are threatened. If the jobs are not saved and the subsidy is not revalued, the Musée National d´Art Moderne will reduce the number and importance of its exhibitions, restrict its loans, and considerably slow its participation in the national and international cultural life, being one of the key players in modern and contemporary art.
This, we believe, that you do not wish to happen.
Yours faithfully,
The curators
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