European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 19, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The uffizi museum in Florence Italy has had to close one third of its rooms this summer. A amps file behind closed doors bureaucracy keeps italian Art treasures from the Public Eye by Alexander Stille the new York times several times this summer the usual throng of japanese German and american tourists has made the pilgrimage from Rome to Tivoli to see the Villa of the roman emperor Hadrian Only to be turned away by a sign saying Quot closed for Lack of personnel Quot although there Are 43 guards assigned to Hadrian s Villa the staff had trouble mustering the minimum of seven needed to open the Gates. The same scene has been played out across Italy this summer at dozens of major monuments and museums. Even the roman forum the heart of ancient Rome has been forced to shut its Gates on occasion. As the weather heals up and the tourists arrive in Force the guards needed to watch Over Italy s Art treasures simply vanish. Italy s most widely visited museum the uffizi in Florence has had to keep about a third of its rooms closed during the crush of the tourist season. Each Day curators count up the number of guards who have bothered to show up for work and calculate How Many rooms they can open and for How Long. Tourists can still see Leonardo a Vinci and Botticelli but forgot about Bronzino Perugino Giorgione or Giovanni Bellini. The museum crisis is becoming As much an italian summer ritual As the palio horse races in Siena or the Poleto music festival. The phantom museum guards Are Only the most obvious byproduct of the bloated and inflexible bureaucracy that governs Italy s National museum system. Museums have virtually no autonomy and every decision from restoring a painting to hiring an extra worker must pass through the ministry of culture in Rome. Moreover the ministry is subject to the whims and dizzying intrigues of Italy s continual government crises. There have been five ministers in the last five years which Means that important decisions Are often held up for months. The result crumbling buildings filthy paintings Lack of Cata logs and research endless restoration projects and frequent thefts. Things have reached the Point that 49 percent of Italy s 1,673 museums  currently closed a and this number does not include the ones that close on the Odd Day when no one shows up for work. Th5 prot it Lem is not a Lack of personnel Quot says Luigi Covatta undersecretary of the ministry of culture and the Man responsible for running the museum system. Quot there Are plenty of guards. The problem is that they Are state employees who enjoy a whole series of  like All state employees museum guards Are entitled by Law to two weeks of Thermal Baths above and beyond their usual seven weeks of paid vacation. Others disappear for weeks or months at a time thanks to medical certificates. And when Covatta threatened to fire custodians at the Berra in Milan for refusing to observe Union work rules he was taken to court for anti Union activity. The Case is pending. The situation at the Berra is not unusual. In the Alice in wonderland world of italian bureaucracy the museum s dearth of custodians actually worsened after their number was nearly tripled in 1986. Quot at the Berra in 1986, 40 custodians managed to keep open 38 rooms now in 1991, with 108 guards they can Only keep open 27 rooms Quot says Covatta. Last year museum guards at the Berra were absent for a total of 8,673 Days three months apiece. Because they Are state run Northern italian museums like the Berra hire guards through a government system that gives preference to unemployed workers from Southern Italy most of whom consider assignment to cities like Milan extreme hardship. Guards generally make Only about $1,000 a month and those from the South frequently cannot afford to take their families with them. As a result they return Home at the first Opportunity. But the custodian problem is Only a symptom. Quot the underlying problem is an antiquated state run system Quot says Covatta. Quot the individual museums have no autonomy. Furthermore our museums Are in Beautiful but very old palaces whose restoration is Complex and  for virtually every expense the director of a museum must turn to the regional superintendent of culture who in turn must turn to Rome. Quot sometimes by the time the Money arrives it s too late to spend it and it has to go Back to Rome a says Art historian Federico Zeri. Money appropriated in a Given year must be spent by the end of that year so that if funds Don t reach a museum by late in the year they have to be returned to the government. As a result Many building and restoration projects Start and Stop with the unpredictable ebb and flow of funds. Work at the gallery of the Villa Borghese in Rome has dragged on for More than 10 years making its masters collection of Bernini Caravaggio and Titian difficult and often impossible to see. The National roman museum with Rome s principal collection of ancient Art has been mostly closed for the same period. Work proceeds on both with no Clear end in sight. The ministry of culture is Only one of the National bureaucracies with which museums must contend. It distributes funds but the ministry of finance is in charge of collecting the Money museums make in admissions and sales. A museum like the uffizi does not even have a Alance Sheet says Covatta. Quot it has no control Over what it  for this reason museum directors have no economic incentive to attract the Public put on special exhibitions publish Cata logs or stay open longer hours. Covatta although a political appointee favors decentralization and privatization of the system. His idea is that the largest museums would become almost completely autonomous each run by its own separate foundation. The works of Art would remain in the Public Domain but such services As guarding the museum and running the Bookstore would be contracted out to private companies. Quot Italy does t seem to realize that Art and antiquities Are the country s greatest resource a what Oil is to saudi Arabia Quot says Adriano d uffizi director of Hadrian s Villa. Quot four Hundred thousand people come through Here every year and we could double the number easily and do it properly if we had the  so far reactions to Covatta s decentralization plan have been positive but it has not yet entered the uhf i?r0na he we of knows the government could fall at any minute and in the division of spoils among the governing parties his Job could be bargained away. Each Day curators count up the number of guards that have bothered to show up Formwork and calculate How Many rooms they can open end for How Long a stripes Magazine september 19, 1991