Salvatore Settis writes to Conte: open all museums for free by contingent visits

Reopen museums and reopen them for free: this is the proposal that archaeologist Salvatore Settis, former rector of the Normale di Pisa, addresses to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte from the columns of Corriere della Sera in an open letter published in today’s edition. “Your dpcm,” Settis writes addressing Conte directly, “provides for the closure of museums, considered under the species of assemblage and not as irreplaceable sources of cultural nourishment. It is unclear why five people in a museum room risk contagion more than five people in a grocery store of identical size.”

According to Settis, the closure of museums established by the dpcm of last Nov. 3 “starts from an all-proven postulate,” namely that everything will return “as before”: according to the scholar, we must instead prepare for a new world that will increasingly need cultural. “Cultural memory,” Settis writes, “reminds us of what we were and projects us into the future. It gives us inner wealth, hope, creativity. It does not heal wounds, but it heals and alleviates them.” Settis recalls that Article 9 of the Constitution, the one that protects the nation’s cultural heritage, was written in an Italy reduced to rubble by World War II, and was based on only two precedents, namely the German Constitution promulgated in 1919 (after World War I), and the Spanish Constitution of 1934, drafted just before the civil war broke out. “In three major European countries,” Settis writes, “the violence of trauma generated awareness of cultural memory.”

And now? This is the question Settis asks, launching a proposal: “open all museums with free admission for everyone for a few months, contingent on visits. Include large and small museums, state and non-state, public and private, in the project. Guarantee security measures by hiring hall staff.” Hedging? “With the Recovery Fund,” suggests Settis: “It would be a signal of life, of hope, of planning. A strong affirmation that art and culture are necessary,” and that “the museum is a thinking machine, the sign and symbol of a society that does not just survive itself, but attends the past to create the new.” It is unclear whether Settis intends to reopen them immediately or, more likely, when the emergency is over. Certainly according to the scholar such a measure would be “a forward-looking move to prepare us for the world to come.”

Salvatore Settis writes to Conte: open all museums for free by contingent visits

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.