Voces del Prado

Budgetary paradoxes and ridiculous cultural policies

Francisco Calvo Serraller, Museum Director, 1993-1994

There were many paradoxes. For example, one that surprised me consisted of the education budgets of other departments. I saw that the Reina Sofía Museum had almost twice the budget compared to the Prado. At first, I thought that it must have such a strong budget allocation due to its need to purchase works because, obviously, the Reina Sofía did not have such important works in its collections. But then one day, reviewing the accounts, I saw that it had twice the allocation for the restoration workshop compared to the Prado. What was that all about? The answer was that the Reina Sofia was a political toy. That is just nonsense! It’s cultural policy nonsense and political folly. And this ridiculous mentality continues. It still goes on.