Heritage has always been the main focus of the Italian cultural policy, starting from the name of the first Ministry established in 1974, Ministry for Heritage (“Ministero per i Beni Culturali e ambientali”), notwithstanding the broader competence on different cultural domains, such as performing arts, libraries, film, and landscape. In 2013 the name changed to the Ministry for the Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism (“Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali” /MiBACT), due to the enlargement of the competences, including tourism. Recently the responsibilities on tourism have been transferred for a short while to the Ministry of Agricultural policies and then (2021) to a new autonomous Ministry of Tourism. On this occasion also the acronym of the Ministry, MiBACT, changed again to become simply MiC, Ministry of Culture, (“Ministero della Cultura”).
The direct responsibility of the Ministry in managing national heritage institutions encompasses 464 museums with archaeological sites and monuments out of 4.880, 107 libraries out of 7.401 and 101 archives[1], while the whole domain of protection and valorisation of heritage is regulated by the Heritage and Landscape Codex, which synthetized in a single text a large number of previous specific laws on that topic.
Starting from 2014, Museums, Monuments and Archaeological sites, at national level, have been the object of a process of reorganization that implies for the most important ones an economic and organisational autonomy: now there are 40 Museums with special autonomy, coordinated by the General Direction of Museums (Direzione Generale dei Musei); the other national museums are organised under the Regional Directions of Museums (Direzioni Regionali dei Musei).
The Directors of Museums with special autonomy have been selected via a public international contest, rather then selecting personnel directly from the Ministry as usual, giving room to some debates. Anyway, this change produced positive effects on audiences and activities in almost all cases.
The other more than 4.200 museums, archaeological sites and monuments are mainly run by municipalities (2.097), Religious entities (491), other public bodies and Universities, Foundations, and private associations.
To better coordinate and promote high quality levels of performances of the whole universe of museums, apart from their property, the Ministry established the National Museum System (Sistema museale nazionale), providing in 2018 Livelli Uniformi di Qualità (LUQV) – Standard Quality Levels, divided into a minimum range and in an improvement level. The participation in the System is on a voluntary basis, and provides an accreditation, after having passed the minimum level. The System is managed by a specific commission, using a digital platform and it is intended as a tool to improve territorial and thematic networks, as well as an incentive for better quality in all domains of museum activities, starting from the relationship with audiences.
Apart from Museums, the Ministry has a specific structure for coordinating and sustaining the UNESCO World Heritage List, given the largest number of sites in Italy in comparison with other Countries, 58 in 2021. Adding to this, in recent years there has been growing interest in the cultural immaterial components of heritage, recognizing on the national level 14 cases within the Intangible UNESCO cultural heritage List. The growing importance for the intangible components of culture is witnessed by the decision of the Ministry to establish a new permanent Observatory on the Intangible UNESCO heritage List.
The central role of heritage, material and intangible, is also at the core of the Italian Capital of Culture, an yearly national competition to select a city for cultural merits, structured in a similar way to the ECOC European programme. This role is played not only by monuments and museums, but also by the quality of historical centres and vernacular dwellings, as in the example of Procida Island – Italian Cultural Capital for 2022. In 2023 the title will be shared by Bergamo and Brescia, as a tool to redesign the cultural future of these cities that suffered the most during the Covid 19 pandemic, with an enormous number of losses.
To better sustain the investments in protecting, restoring and enhancing the material and intangible Heritage, the Ministry established in 2020 a Cultural Fund (“Fondo per la Cultura”)[2]; the interesting innovation is that the total endowment could be increased in partnership with private actors, through activities of micro-funding and crowd-funding.
Another way of involving private actors and companies in sustaining cultural heritage is represented by the Art Bonus[3]: private actors or companies can invest in three different domains (restoration and maintenance of public heritage; sustaining cultural institutions, Opera Houses, Theatres and other bodies operating in performing arts; or funding new buildings or restoring existing venues of public institutions dealing with performing arts). The investors can obtain a tax credit equal to 65% of the money invested (see chapter 4.4 and 7.3).
New forms of Public-Private Partnerships are now possible starting from 2016, thanks to the new Public Procurement Contract (“Codice degli Appalti”)[4] that allows private actors not only to invest through sponsorships activities, but also to be partners in managing and running the cultural institutions on a long term basis, consistent with the dimension of the initial investment. The application of this opportunity, extended not only to the State Heritage, but also at the local government level, is providing successful experiences.
It’s obvious to remark that the frame and the entire organisation of heritage management at all levels has been hit with unpredictable violence by the pandemic, starting from the first months of 2020; ISTAT evaluates that approx. 78 millions Euros was lost during the three months from March to May 2020, due to the lockdown by the State museum alone. The business model of museums and monuments based not only on public funding, but also on a significant contribution of tickets sold, entered into a dramatic crisis after the lockdowns and the adoption of new constraints, reducing the carrying capacity for pandemic risks prevention, and in this very moment the uncertainty for the future evolution of the situation is dramatically high.
The extraordinary situation pushed the Ministry to adopt exceptional measures to sustain the crisis experienced by a large number of institutions: adding to this, new resources are being provided for the Cultural Fund and for the protection of heritage, combined with a new impetus for the digital strategy in the heritage domain and the adoption of a digital plan for heritage.
A significant amount of resources will be invested thanks to the PNRR, National Plan of Resilience and Resistance, starting from 2021, focused on a list of relevant Heritage sites (Grandi Attrattori), on the digital strategy for heritage and on historical villages in the rural and mountain areas.
Great expectations are placed on future investments of massive resources tied together with major concerns about the sustainability of previous business models, about the effects of social distancing on audiences, and about possible negative impacts on visitor behaviours.
[1] https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/251882
[2] D.L. 34/2020, L. 77/2020: art. 184.
[3] D.L. 83/2014, L. 106/2014.
[4] D.L. 83/2014, L. 106/2014, Art 151, comma 3).
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