Middle East stands to gain from arts cuts

Europe as a cultural centre is in danger of being eclipsed by the Middle East as western heritage industries struggle with swingeing austerity measures, according to a top museum director.

The comments came as directors of the world’s leading museums published a report on Thursday seeking to put an economic value on the international cultural industry and defend it from budget cuts.

Speaking at the Florens 2010 international forum on cultural heritage in Florence, Italy, Dr Wafaa el-Saddik, general director of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, told the Financial Times there was a “strong feeling” that the Middle East, led by the United Arab Emirates, “will be the new cultural capital of the world”.

“We are not affected by the crisis, we are not suffering, there is a lot of money. It is a great advantage,” Dr Saddik said, adding that 2012 would be crucial because several museums were opening in the region and “the Middle East will really be the centre of the cultural map”.

Philippe de Montebello, director emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, agreed that strong economies in the Middle East and also China were competing culturally. “My only answer to this shift in history is: why begrudge them? It’s their turn. Art always goes where money goes, and where money is made,” he told the FT.

The conference, organised by The European House-Ambrosetti, a think-tank, is attended by international museum directors to discuss the future of the industry and saw the publication of the Florens 2010 study, which examines the value of culture in countries including Italy, France, the UK, Japan and the US. As well as revenues from tourist visits to cultural and archeological sites, the authors considered income from sectors directly influenced by the arts, including the media, publishing, advertising, architecture and luxury goods and fashion.

Silvia Colombo, report co-author, said it sought to overcome a traditional perception that “culture is a cost centre, not a strategic value with implications for GDP and employment”.

The study estimates that in Italy alone the cultural industry generates a ripple effect in the economy worth €116bn (£98.5bn) a year, equal to 9.3 per cent of gross domestic product and 2.8m jobs. By contrast, Italy spends the equivalent of only 0.19 per cent of its GDP on the arts.

The sector in its narrowest form – museums and galleries – is worth 2.5 times as much to the wider economy in the countries studied than is gained simply through direct tourist revenues, the report said.

The authors found that the US had been most successful at exploiting its culture, followed by France and the UK.

The report advocates greater development of public private partnerships, use of digital media and travelling exhibitions to increase value.

Budget shortfalls are expected to worsen across Europe as governments implement austerity measures in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In the UK, the Arts Council has had its overall budget from the department for Culture, Media and Sport slashed by 29.6 per cent over four years, while France is seeking partly private funding for the Louvre gallery in Paris through its expansion into the Gulf.

The report comes shortly after the collapse of the 2,000-year-old “House of Gladiators” in Pompeii in the south of the country. Many blamed the disaster partly on sustained cuts in arts funding by the Italian government.

Italy, which boasts 45 Unesco World Heritage sites – more than any other country, has long struggled to maintain its vast cultural and archeological heritage, but the funding gap has become especially chronic in the past decade.

Funding has been cut by as much as 40 per cent in that period, according to some estimates, as successive governments have sought to control Italy’s sprawling national debt.

In Italy, funding for the arts is complicated by widespread raids and art trafficking. At Pompeii, of the €79m spent on the site in the past two years, 90 per cent went on security to keep vandals and art traffickers at bay.

Sandro Bondi, Italy’s culture minister, on Thursday made an angry defence of his stewardship of Pompeii. He told delegates at the forum the incident had been politicised and the temple’s collapse was due to flawed restoration done in the 1950s.