Virginia Curry, a retired FBI agent who was involved in art-crime investigations in Los Angeles, responds to Italian Museum “Super-Manager”: Illustrious Artworld Signatories Oppose New Profit-Driven Post:
The Italian museum system has no money, save what they receive for the foreign loans of their collection. Italy is proof that under socialism there is barely money left for government programs, and the arts are left to forage for themselves. When staff is poorly compensated for their education and skill, they look elsewhere for compensation, sometimes even exploiting the poorly curated collections.
I applaud any effort to make the enjoyment of Italian cultural patrimony as accessible as a Big Mac. If you have ever tried to access, for example, the collections of Italian archaeological museums online for study, you would know that access is virtually non-existent.