Admission to Italy's museums is about to get more expensive

ROME, May 30 ― Several Italian regions have been hit by severe flooding, resulting in the deaths of around 15 people and billions of euros in damage. To contribute to the reconstruction efforts, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has decided to raise the price of admission to some of the country's museums.

Museum entry will increase by €1 (RM4.93) as of June 15, reports The Art Newspaper. This exceptional measure will be in force until September 15, and concerns only Italian public museums. The aim is to raise funds to save the cultural heritage damaged by the floods that have hit the peninsula since mid-May.

The Emilia-Romagna region is paying a heavy price for this meteorological disaster, with 75 historic monuments, 12 libraries and 6 archaeological sites damaged by flooding and landslides, according to The Art Newspaper. In particular, water seeped into the Guerrino Tramonti and Carlo Zauli museums, damaging the many works of art and ceramics on display. “I don't think there's much left that can be done for certain pieces,” said Claudia Casali, director of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy, speaking to Giornale Dell’Arte.

The €1 increase in the price of admission to Italy's public museums is part of the €2 billion-plus aid package announced by the government in the wake of the historic storms. However, this initiative has been criticized by some cultural commentators, who fear that it will drive Italians even further away from art establishments. Indeed, the country's museums have still not recovered their pre-pandemic visitor levels: only 20 per cent of the Italian population visited one in 2022, according to The Art Newspaper, quoting figures from the ISTAT agency.

This isn't the first time that the Italian government has mooted a price increase for its museums. The idea was raised in November 2022, not in response to a climate catastrophe, but to the militant actions of activists wishing to draw attention to the climate emergency. At the time, they had carried out a number of hard-hitting actions at the Pio Clementino Museum in the Vatican and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. At the time, the Culture Minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said that the country's art establishments might have to raise their prices in order to bolster their security measures. ― ETX Studio