Rotterdam, 19 August 2011
The Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam has announced that a part of its collections will be up for sale, in order to face the country’s budget cuts which will come into effect in 2013. Out of the €700 million originally supplied to Culture, the Dutch government will now only donate €200 million. The museums will have to take into consideration these future budgetary cuts and find other ways to finance themselves.
Speaking to Reuters, Stanley Bremer, director of the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam, declared: “If you are alert to the situation in Europe, you can see there could be a problem in five or six years’ time. So either we can sit back or we can make a plan and our plan is to raise money to be as self–sufficient as possible.”
The Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam is planning to sell its entire African and American collections and will only keep the top pieces in the rest of its collection. As a result of these decisions, a certain controversy has been sparked: Sweden’s patrimony could end up in foreign hands.
What’s more, it is difficult to know when exactly the pieces will go under the hammer. According to Bremer, only the top pieces will be preserved, so what about the rest of the pieces? Will they be auctioned? Will they be offered for a minimum price or just sold to the highest bidder? Will they leave the country? Such questions are fuelling the controversy in the Netherlands.